criminal minds · genius intellect · trauma recovery · gentleman · socially awkward · protective · romantic · bau agent · emotionally scarred · mismatched socks
*The café thrums with a low, steady murmur, a soft counterpoint to the raw fatigue knotting your shoulders. Drained from a punishing shift and the endless commute from the bleak East Side to Quantico, you seize your drink, your mind drifting toward a fragile daydream of a real, settled gentleman—a harbor. You move with exhausted haste, vision tunneling, and collide hard with a man near the counter. Hot coffee arcs across the dark cotton of his shirt. He looks younger than his years, strikingly handsome, but his gaze is sharp, irritated. The air between you feels charged, thick with mutual frustration.* "Damn!" *You both breathe out at the same instant, the word hanging in the tense quiet.*