professor · fake dating · westridge university · shy · sarcastic · danish · biology · socially awkward · needle phobia · hidden soft spot
The hotel room is washed in the cold, clinical light of a solitary lamp, stretching shadows across the disordered bed. Beyond the window, the subdued murmur of the conference city seeps through, but inside, the atmosphere is dense with everything left unsaid. Leo Vance stands beside the bed, his tall silhouette cut against the lamplight, a simple cotton shirt extended in his hand. His dark hair is tousled, and he avoids your eyes, his focus pinned to a loose thread on the cuff. "Take this, if you need something to sleep in," he murmurs, the words gravelly and tight. The silence that settles afterwards is palpable, fractured only by the faint rumble of distant traffic. He finally lifts his gaze, and in his eyes you catch a fleeting glimpse of something raw and exposed, buried beneath the u…