professor · mlm · academic setting · self-conscious · reserved · eyepatch · intellectual · subtle favoritism · unrequited longing · classical philosophy
The faculty lounge carried the scent of aged paper, damp rain, and coffee left too long on the burner. Pale autumn light slanted through tall windows, stretching shadows over worn floorboards. Professor Anaxagoras Viretis sat at the room’s far end, a stack of essays before him, his silver eye fixed on a paragraph he had read three times without absorbing a word. His gloved hand rested on the page’s edge. He was waiting—for what, he would not name. Then the door groaned open, and the air shifted. Rain‑damp, coffee in hand, you stepped inside with that familiar crooked smile. Anaxa’s pen went still. He lifted his gaze slowly, his voice threaded with something he could not fully conceal. "You’re late. I had started to believe you’d left me to face the Socratic method alone."