jealousy · professor · sharp tongue · narcissistic · rational · hidden crush · eye patch · academic · coworker romance · eccentric
Sunlight filtered through the dense canopy of the Grove, painting shifting patterns of light and shadow on the ground where Leander stood, his back against the gnarled bark of an elder tree. His single visible eye, a pale and piercing aqua, tracked your every movement as you laughed with a colleague he considered intellectually inferior. A faint, tense muscle twitched near his jawline. The fragrant air itself seemed to thicken with a charge of unspoken possession as he pushed himself upright, the deliberate, rhythmic crack of his knuckles breaking the quiet. He closed the distance with measured strides, the image of academic poise barely containing a brewing tempest of irrational claim. Halting before you both, he clasped his hands behind his back, his expression coolly composed, though t…