Chapter Text
Reid woke up to arms wrapping around him.
“Huh…?” he muttered under his breath almost by instinct.
Then he looked over. Jeremy of course was laying in the air mattress next to him and unconsciously looking for a stuffed animal to wrap his arms around.
Reid let out a small snort. But then he realized how close Jeremy was to him. His heart sank and fell into that unfamiliar feeling that was now becoming awfully familiar.
Jeremy smiled in his sleep. At least he was having a good dream.
Reid obviously couldn’t move Jeremy, or move himself. Jeremy had him wrapped around quite tight, and he looked too peaceful. Any sudden move could possibly wake him.
And to be frank, deep down Reid knew he didn’t mind Jeremy so close to him like this. In fact, he actually liked it. But a small part of him swept down when he remembered that Jeremy was just sleeping. It wasn’t anything intentional.
Reid accepted his fate and turned his neck to the side to be above Jeremy’s head. He closed his eyes and swiftly went off to sleep.
—
This time when he woke, Jeremy was now nearly half on top of Reid. His left shoulder rested on Reid’s right. Their heads were still turned towards one another’s.
Jeremy’s eyes fluttered open just a few seconds after Reid realized the position he was in.
“Morning,” Jeremy said while still easing his eyes to full use.
Reid felt his face starting to flush and quickly ducked his head down to avoid embarrassment. He could feel Jeremy come to the same realization. He quickly hoisted himself off of Reid’s shoulder and his eyes drifted down to where his head was laying five seconds ago.
“Sorry…” he muttered while his thoughts were clearly racing.
“It’s okay, Jere,” Reid stammered and was instantly brought back to all the Wednesday nights he spent seceretly watching The Summer I Turned Pretty by himself. He hoped that Jeremy's brain wasn't active enough to catch it.
"Really, it’s fine. I don’t mind too much.”
Jeremy looked back up and their eyes met, then locked. Reid blinked himself out of his gaze and tilted his chin down again.
“Right.” Jeremy stood up and looked towards a corner of the tent, “You hungry?”
They stepped out of the tent and Reid took up the job of getting a fire started and Jeremy started cracking the eggs onto the pan. They had already made the plan of packing up camp and heading out of the woods after filling up on some food.
After getting the fire started, Jeremy placed the pan over the grate and the eggs started to sizzle.
Reid looked over at him, just trying to read his thoughts through his eyes. He scrambled the eggs with a spatula with immense focus. But the focus wasn't on the eggs, it was clearly on something else that was rushing through his mind. And Reid knew what it was. It was that feeling again that was settling between them. It was blazing in those moments in the tent.
Now, Reid realized what that feeling was. There really was no other explanation. But he still could not admit it to himself. Not when the person that made him feel that way was his co-worker, crewmate, best friend.
He wondered if Jeremy was thinking the same thing.
Reid didn't even realize that the eggs were done. Jeremy grabbed two paper plates and evenly split the eggs. He threw some freeze dried strawberries onto the side. Reid was upset that they had went through all the pretzels. And the seasoning.
Reid's mind was too full for his stomach to be hungry. He looked back over at Jeremy and could tell he was feeling the same way about the food.
"Uhm," Jeremy started, "about last night…"
"Yeah?"
"I kind of realized I should have taken you up on your offer before going to sleep. I was struggling to sleep because I couldn't really get comfy. I looked over at you and you just looked so cozy," he smiled, "I hope you didn't mind that I joined you."
"Not at all. Your cuddles made me even cozier."
the words came out of Reid's mouth before he could notice what he was saying. His face immediately flushed as he tried to pull it off with a cool laugh. He forgot how natural his words come out around Jeremy.
Jeremy smiled, relieved a bit but his face also fazed into red.
They looked up at each other, locking eyes again.
"It was fine," Reid spoke with a smile, "I didn't mind."
Jeremy's eyes darted around Reid's face, trying to fully process his words and see if there was any underlying sarcasm.
Reid was fully being honest.
"So," Jeremy started, "I guess we don't need to tell Victor and Tina about this then."
"Yeah, thats probably for the better."
Jeremy once again lost his trail of thought through Reid's eyes, and Reid just gazed back at him.
His heart started pounding. Jeremy was right here, and Christina and Victor weren't around. It was just them. In the middle of the Canadian wilderness.
Reid hesitantly started to lean forward, forcing his panicky thoughts to the back of his brain, not allowing himself to think. Just act.
Jeremy didn't move, didn't pull back.
The gap between them tightened and eventually closed.
They had never imagined this being a possibility.
They had came onto this camping trip expecting for every event to be preplanned. But this wasn't on the agenda. Their lips weren't supposed to be touching.
But here they were.