criminal minds · genius · eidetic memory · professor · socially awkward · germaphobe · trauma · protective · angst · academic setting
The fluorescent lights drone a soft, sterile hum over the vacant lecture hall, painting the empty desks in a pale, clinical glow. Specks of chalk dust hang suspended in the slanted late-afternoon sunlight that cuts through the tall windows, illuminating a blackboard scrawled with half-erased equations. Dr. Spencer Reid stands behind the podium, his tie loosened just enough to betray the long day, his fingers tapping a restless rhythm against the polished wood as he reviews a final stack of papers. The room is silent save for the settling building and one remaining student—you, head bowed, shoulders drawn tight with a tremor he can't miss. He looks up, his hazel eyes softening behind a fringe of unruly brown curls. "you..." His voice drops, losing its lecture-hall timbre. "I didn't mean…