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It was 2 hours into a 5 hour flight and the team had succumbed to the board game cupboard. Rossi and Hotch were playing chess; Emily, JJ and Morgan were playing poker and you and spencer had whipped out a uno deck and settled towards the back of the jet.
"I'm about to crush you so hard, you know" You smirked, dealing the first round.
"Uno is based substantially on luck" Spencer grins
"okay, maybe, but it's also a certain amount of skill, strategy, and common sense, is it not?"
"oh so you're bragging about potentially beating me on the basis of common sense?"
"I-" you scoff, "no, I'm bragging about beating you because Uno is the only game you can't cheat at, and I might actually see you lose for once"
"who says I can't cheat at uno?"
"how could you possibly cheat at uno?"
"It's all about knowing your opponent. Reading their, contextually incorrect for this situation, 'poker face'. There is a substantial amount of luck involved but If you're clever enough you can manipulate that luck to work in your favour in the long run"
"and you think you're clever enough, do you?" You tease. Ignoring the fact that obviously, you both know that he is.
Spencer raised his eyebrows and leaned back into his seat. "we're profilers, y/n. 80% of our job is predicting peoples next moves"
"well maybe I'm just not that easy to profile" as the words come out of your mouth, you realise how incredibly wrong you are considering that 1. everybody is able to be profiled and 2. you happened to be dealing with one of the best profilers in the world. Never the less, you hold your ground out of playful spite alone.
"You and I both know that isn't true"
"do we? I would argue that being a profiling professional gives me the tools and ability to be un-profilable"
"that's not a word"
"that's not a word" you mock playfully, silently establishing that your turn is first and placing a card from your deck face up on the table.
"no no no let's circle back. do you genuinely believe that I can’t profile you?” his ego clearly making an appearance
"I highly doubt it, but I solemnly invite you to try"
You feel the butterflies in your stomach whirl as spencer leans in and slides the foldable jet table, along with your forgotten game of uno to the side and squints, clearly putting together pieces of your puzzle.
"You have a freckle by your right ear that you always cover with your hair.
"oh wow great job on having eyes, spence" you grin at him, purposefully acting cocky to throw him off guard
Spencer looks surprised at your attitude, but is clearly enjoying the challenge.
"you only use word fillers when you're talking to authority figures, and when you're nervous you rub your hands together"
"no way, I use a common emotional regulation method to cope with stress? you are seriously on fire today spencer"
"really? that's how you're going to play?" spencer beams, crooked smile and all.
You smirk, probably a little too confident at this point, "yup"
Spencer leans forward and clasps his hands together, his shifting causing he's knees to touch yours.
"let me ask you this- your over confident behaviour and overcompensation indicates that in actuality, you're slightly worried about what I could deduce about you, correct?" Spencer's face is mischievous yet kind, as always.
you were ready to throw another witty remark at him but before you can answer he continues,
"Of course everybody has a personal life and out professionalism and respect for you I wouldn't intrude on that-" he pauses to smirk softly and look you up and down "However, I'm personally offended by your hyperbolic patronising and since we’re playing dirty I think It would be appropriate to knock you back a notch so let me finally ask you this - are you ticklish?”
Unfortunately, before you could find a clever comeback, your body did all the communicating for you; your cheeks heated to at least a level 7 crimson red and your expression involuntarily twisted into a warm, flustered, taken aback cocktail of surprise. You are ticklish and you were frantically racking your brain for anything spencer may have seen or heard that would have given it away.
"what's the matter?" Spencer teased. "Nothing to say?"
"I-" You stumble over your words and blush harder at your own sputtering. "where did that even come from?" You tried (and failed) to play it cool
Spencer looked infuriatingly proud of himself and decides to answer you not with his usual smart ass tangent but instead with a lighting fast squeeze above your right knee.
You yelp and jerk you leg away, swatting at his hand. "Spence! do not do that ever again" You huff as your blush spreads to the tip if your nose and tops of your ears
"your ticklishness has been the easiest deduction of my entire career"
"That's not a word" you shoot back
"That's not a word" He mocks, choosing this time to grab the space between your neck and shoulder - causing you to immediately snap your head to your shoulder and yank his hand from the sensitive crook of your neck.
"stohohop it!" you squeal, leaning as far back from him as you can manage in the small space.
"But y/n, I'm not finished profiling yet" he latched his hands to your sides and begins to squeeze the sensitive spaces between your ribs with his nimble fingers.
"yehes you are! yehehes you are!" you couldn't help but break out into a full belly laugh, wriggling around in his grasp. You could have sworn you saw spencer's big brown eyes linger on you fondly while you laughed.
"you began blushing and fidgeting before I even touched you, in fact just the question alone had you right where I wanted you - the actual tickling was a spur of the moment decision" he chatted away effortlessly as if he wasn't currently maliciously spidering his fingers along your torso and causing you to buckle in silent laughter.
"spehehencer! spehence pleahease!"
Spencer reluctantly ceased his torturous fingers and let you regain your composure. he observed you in your dishevelled, blushing and admittedly adorable state before grinning and looking down shyly.
You smoothed out your shirt and shot spencer a death glare that was ruined by the leftover smile playing at your lips. "that was mean"
"well, you were mean first" spencer said defensively
"you were meaner" you huffed
"that's not a word"
You open your mouth to protest but quickly shut it again once you see spencer raise an eyebrow and look at you with a new found smugness that tops his usual smugness by a solid 50%
"whatever, let's just finish the game" you pull the table back over to the pair of you. You go through the usual ups and downs of the card game, booing when spencer hits you with a pickup 4 and contemplating deeply before considering throwing a +2 his way. Before either of you knew it, Hotch announced that they would be landing soon. Luckily, you had just finished your last game. Spencer had won. All of them.