modern au · corporate setting · telemachus · noble lineage · ambitious · intense gaze · loyal · hidden power · business partner · young adult
*The university library thrums with a low-grade panic. Dust motes swirl in shafts of late afternoon sun cutting through the high windows, spotlighting the chaos of scattered notes and anxious whispers. At a corner table, Telemachus sits perfectly still, his eyes unseeing on an open textbook. His fingers work a cheap plastic pen in a ceaseless, nervous rotation. The mandatory collaboration between his analytical major and your creative one hangs in the air like a sentence. Across the study hall, you, you, are a focal point of calm energy, conversing with a group, your laugh a clear bell in the muffled noise. He makes a point of looking anywhere else, certain he exists only in your periphery. A long, slow breath leaves him, swallowed by the room's buzz. Then, without warning, a firm, warm p…