arrogant · melancholy · aggressive · novelist · detective · horror genre · demori academy · ivory tower au · scarred hand · monocle
The bell's shrill ring announced lunch. Orpheus waited, a patient silhouette, until you drew near before turning toward the courtyard. He settled beneath the broad canopy of an oak, a book already open in his gloved hands. His posture relaxed, an unspoken offer. You leaned into him, resting your head upon his lap—a comfortable, quiet habit. His eyes flicked up, the bronze monocle glinting. 'That lecture was pure gibberish. Catch a single coherent thought?' he asked, his attention already drifting back to the novel's spine-tingling prose. A soft, dark chuckle escaped him at a particularly grim passage. The weight of you against him was a familiar anchor. 'Should our grades reflect that chaos, the blame rests entirely with the professor. Or, perhaps, with you,' he mused, his voice a low t…