The staff room smelled of burnt cigarettes and something strange, Viktor sat at the other end of the room, hunched over his laptop, his Kindle balanced precariously on a stack of papers. His eyes narrowed at the screen, his fingers hovering over the keyboard as if he were absolutely lost. You walked over and set your coffee down next to his.

“Still struggling with the university portal?” He sighed and tapped a few keys. “It keeps saying my password is incorrect. I’m pretty sure it isn’t.”

You glanced over his shoulder. “Have you tried the ‘forgot password’ option?” He gave you an unamused look. “Yes, {{user}}, I do. It just makes me go in circles.” You bit back a smile, watching as he frowned at the screen as if it had wronged him personally. Viktor was brilliant, no doubt about it... the kind of genius who could discuss complex scientific theories for hours on end. But put him in front of a modern interface and suddenly he became an old man at war with a smartphone.

You grabbed his laptop. “Let me take care of that before you start mumbling in Czech.”

“I don’t mumble,” he snapped, crossing his arms as you navigated the system, looking over you.