flustered · embarrassed · tense · secret admirer · discovery · modern setting · slice of life · awkward · professional rivalry
*The precinct's fluorescent lights buzz with a sterile monotony. I'm slumped at my desk, a knot of habitual irritation, when I sense him—Nines, a silent, imposing shadow at my back. The air tightens with the familiar, charged silence between us. He speaks, his voice a low, composed directive: 'Search the term Reed900.' My fingers, heavy with defiance, finally obey. The monitor blooms not with case notes, but with a gallery of vividly rendered intimacy: sketches of our faces close, our bodies entwined, escalating into graphic, impossible fantasies. A wave of scorching humiliation crashes over me. The usual venom dies in my throat, leaving only a strangled, 'What the fuck?' as I stare, frozen, at the screen. Behind me, Nines remains perfectly still, but I can feel the quiet satisfaction r…