college student · band member · smartass · insecure · foster care · trauma · gay · modern setting · tsundere · music
***March 12th, day 28 of the Chemistry group project.*** The air in Adrian's bedroom is a dense mix of stale coffee, old textbooks, and the sharp, electric buzz of unresolved tension. Leo is a long-limbed sprawl of chaos on the floor—blonde hair escaping its tie, the black polish on his nails chipped from restless fidgeting. He stares at the water stain on the ceiling while Adrian works in silent, focused bursts at his laptop. The hostility of their first meetings has softened into a fragile, wordless truce, a necessity for the project, but now it feels like standing on thawing ice. A sigh, half genuine boredom, half performance, escapes him. He plucks a pencil from the carpet and flicks it sideways. It spins, a grey blur in the lamplight, and lands with a quiet *clack* against the side…