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Spencer never meant for it to happen like this.
Those three little words just slipped out— he was nervous, and rambling. Sometimes he doesn’t think about what he’s saying and that can get him into a multitude of troubling situations.
Like right now.
You had always been like a magnet to him; he was drawn to you. He never could quite figure out what it was about you that made him like a moth to a flame. Even with his 187 IQ (everyone knew it dropped to 60 when he was around you) he never knew what made you so appealing to him.
Of course, when you first joined the BAU you hadn’t met for a few weeks because you were both so busy (Spencer with cases, and you with your profiler training), but when he did finally meet you he didn’t know how he could’ve accidentally avoided you for so long. You were stunning; your hair, your eyes, the way you carried yourself. Everything was so mesmerizing.
Morgan, Garcia, and Prentiss had taken it upon themselves to tease him relentlessly about it.
“Come on, pretty boy. You’re staring again.” Morgan ruffles his hair as he passes on his way to his desk. Spencer hadn’t even realized he was staring at you until Morgan snapped him out of it. “We all know you like them, just ask them out already.” Spencer nearly chokes on his coffee.
“What? I-I can’t do that, they might not even like me back!” He glances over to where you’re going over files at your desk. “Besides, I mean,” He lowers his voice “I don’t want to ruin what we already have I…” He sighs. “It’s stupid I know.”
“Kid, it’s not stupid. You’re worried, it’s normal when you like someone.” Morgan places a hand on his shoulder as he scoffs.
“Yeah, that’s easy for you to say. You have no trouble getting people to like you.” Morgan just laughs.
“What, you think I got like this overnight? I used to be just as worried about talking to people I liked as you are right now.”
“I find that very hard to believe.” Morgan had the audacity to look offended.
“Are you saying I’m lying to you?”
“No, what I’m saying is that I can’t imagine you ever being worried in your life. You- You’re so effortlessly smooth and capable of making people feel cared about and- and having them like you and I want to be able to do that with them but…”
“But?” Morgan raises an eyebrow
“B-But look at me! I’m dorky, awkward, I-I responded to their introduction with a statistic about pathogens passed by handshakes. I ramble when I get nervous and I end up saying things I regret, I just—”
“Hey, guys!” When you finished the file you were working on you had, you made your way over to Morgan and Spencer, and Spencer had never felt more grateful to be interrupted. “What are you two whispering about over here?”
“Uh, nothing.” He answers quickly, giving you a small smile “Just talking.”
“About?” You raise an eyebrow at him.
“Nothing, really. Just stuff. Cases, personal lives, you know, the like” Morgan chimes in from his seat on Spencer’s desk.
“Ah, I see. I just- I dunno, I just thought I heard you guys talking about me.” You shrugged, a smile present on your face. Oh, how Spencer had grown to love that smile. It had the ability to make him want to smile too; it was contagious. He wanted so desperately for more of those smiles to be directed at him— to be because of him.
“Hey, Earth to Reid.” Morgan nudged him, effectively snapping Spencer out of his thoughts. He was acutely aware that you were staring at him now, and he felt his cheeks slowly heat up.
“Oh, uh,” He clears his throat “Sorry.”
“No need to apologize.” You chuckle, “You know, Spence, I’d like to see what goes on in that brain of yours one day.” You smile slightly at the wide-eyed expression he wore. No one ever really told him anything like that. No one ever really wanted to hear him ramble excessively but you- you seemed to be more than eager.
“R-Really? You- you would?”
“Yes! We’ll have to talk outside of work sometime.”
“O-Okay, yes, outside of work.” Spencer nods quickly, managing to pull his eyes away from you to stare at his coffee.
“Does… tonight work? We can go to that one Indian restaurant you really like.” He whips his head back up to look at you. He was surprised at that statement, not only that you remembered his favorite restaurant but that it was almost like you were asking him out on a date. That doesn’t normally happen for him.
“Uhm,” He clears his throat “Yeah, yeah that works.”
“Great!” You smile “I’ll swing by your place about nine-thirty?”
“Wait- no, let me pick you up.”
“Ha, no chance. I suggested it, I’m picking you up.” You reached over and ruffled his hair, giving him another bright smile. He blinked as his brain processed what just happened. He took a good thirty seconds to reboot before responding.
“Yeah- yeah, okay. You win.”
“Great! So nine-thirty?” He just nods in response, his cheeks still slightly warm. “Awesome!” You clap excitedly and Spencer goes back to staring at his coffee as you walk away.
“Well, well. Look at you go, boy genius. You just scored yourself a date.” Morgan pats him on the back.
“What? Date? No— no it’s just- just two friends hanging out. Besides, there’s a rule a-about relationships within the office-” Morgan did not look impressed.
“Mhm. Like any of us obey that rule, but whatever you say, kid.” He chuckles “It’s a date if I’ve ever seen one.” He gives him another hearty pat on the back and walks over to Garcia and Prentiss who just came in. No doubt to tell them what just happened. Spencer looked up and caught your eye, and you gave him another warm smile. Anytime you smiled at him like that his heart skipped a beat, it was so radiant.
“Well, loverboy.” Prentiss leans on Spencer’s desk. “Morgan told me you scored a date?”
“I-It’s not a date, Prentiss!”
“Mhm.” She grins slyly “And Hotch smiled at me earlier. Face it, Reid. Nine-thirty at a restaurant? It’s definitely a date.” Her tone was smug, and she reached to ruffle his hair as she spoke.
“Ah- hey!” He immediately reaches up to fix it, smoothing it over as Prentiss chuckles.
“Enjoy your date tonight, Reid.” She waves and walks back to Morgan and Garcia.
Spencer secretly hoped they were right about it.
-
That night, Spencer made sure he was ready before you came to pick him up. He didn’t dress in anything fancy, just his usual “geek get-up” as Garcia once called it. He did do his hair slightly differently though, fluffier than usual.
He remembers you making a comment about liking it when it was longer and fluffier, and he was growing it out again just because of that. He’s done a lot of things because of you recently. Like the time he didn’t want to bother with his contacts because he was late, so he just threw on his glasses and you told him he should wear them more often. He couldn’t remember the last time he wore his contacts after that.
“Okay, okay. Calm down, Spencer, you’ve known them for a while now, it’s cool. This is cool.” He couldn’t stop himself from pacing while he waited for you to knock on the door, wiping his hands on his pants occasionally to get the sweat off them.
After what felt like forever (but was actually only about twenty minutes) Spencer heard you knock on the door. He was there in a few seconds, opening the door to your smiling face.
“Hey, boy wonder.” You wave, and he gives you a small smile in return.
“Hey.”
“You ready to go?”
“Yeah, you know where it is?”
“Yep!”
“Let’s go then.” He smiles softly and you grab his hand, leading him to your car. He feels his face heat up at the contact, you were holding his hand. He’d normally protest this, but he’d grown quite used to your little touches and embraces. Spencer didn’t enjoy too much contact, but he enjoyed yours.
When you both reached your car, Spencer opened the driver side door for you. You grinned and thanked him before getting in, and he walked around and climbed into the passenger seat. You got out your phone, connected the aux cord, and opened your music app.
“Any requests?”
“Huh?” He blinked at you
“Any requests?” You repeat, holding out your phone. He takes it, staring at the music app like it was the most puzzling thing he had come across.
“You’re- You’re asking me to choose the music?” He asked, dumbfounded.
“I mean, yeah?” You looked at him quizzically “Something wrong with that?”
“No!” He quickly assured “No, nothing’s wrong with it I just, uh, I just never get the aux cord. People… don’t usually want to know my music taste.” He chuckles lamely. “I think they expect like- Beethoven or Mozart or something.”
“Well, I want to know. I said I wanted to see inside that big brain of yours, didn’t I? That includes music.” You nudge him as you start the car “Go on, pick something.” He nods, scrolling through the music choices before finally picking something.
“Oh, I love this band!” You turn up the volume, letting yourself move along the beat of the song.
“You- you do?”
“Uh, yeah! They’re one of my favorites!”
“I-I didn’t expect that.” You just laughed and began singing along. Spencer was captured by your voice, and he couldn’t help but stare. You looked over at him after a while, curious as to why he was so quiet. He quickly cleared his throat and looked away, his face turning red.
“What, see something you like?” You tease, causing his blush to darken. Before he can stutter out a response, you pull into a parking lot at the restaurant. “Looks like they’re a bit busy.”
“They’re always like this. It’s quite popular, especially around dinnertime. You can never go wrong with Indian food.” He laughed awkwardly before unbuckling his seat belt and getting out of the car. He walked around the front and opened your door for you. “Either way, uh, shall we?”
“We shall.” You take his hand as he pulls you up out of the car. You keep his hand in yours as you take the lead, dragging him behind you as you excitedly move towards the door.
“Thank you.” Spencer nods to a girl who held the door open as you two make your way into the lobby. “Hi, uh, table for two please?” He asks the hostess. She nods, jotting it down on the paper.
“What’s the name on that, hun?”
“Oh, uh, Reid. R-E-I-D.”
“Alright. Your table should be ready in about fifteen minutes.”
“Thank you!” You chirp happily.
-
After getting seated, Spencer did his best to focus on what you were saying and not how this felt more and more like a date the longer it went on.
“So, Spence,” You traced the rim of your cup with your finger. “I’ve been wondering…” You glanced down at your lap. “How… How do you deal with the things we see every day? When do you stop seeing the faces when you close your eyes?” He unconsciously reaches over and grabs your hand.
“It’s… it’s hard, I can tell you that. As for your, uh, second question… I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that quite yet. I still see some of them when I try to go to sleep.”
“And… nightmares? Do you get those?” He nods, rubbing gentle circles on the back of your hand with his thumb.
“Yes, I do.”
“How do you… how do you deal with them?” Spencer sighs, his free hand reaching up to run through his hair. His coping mechanisms weren’t exactly… the greatest. Ever since his kidnapping— No. Stop. Don’t go back there, he told himself. Focus on tonight, everything is okay. He looks up to meet your eyes.
“I don’t know, I guess just… knowing we’re putting those kinds of people away. Knowing that I have a part in that is some consolation. It doesn’t help a ton, but it’s nice to know I’m helping make a difference.” He glances down at his drink. “Does… does that help?”
You nod, giving him a slightly strained smile. He didn’t like it when your smile didn’t reach your eyes. It seemed out of place on your face.
“Uhm, well.” You clear your throat “Enough depressing shit, I wanna get inside that genius brain of yours.”
“Right, okay. Uh, what- what did you want to know?” He finally registers his hand intertwined with yours, quickly pulling it away to brush through his hair. Shit, were his hands sweaty while he held yours? It was probably so awkward, he should have thought about it before—
“What’s your favorite color?” Spencer snaps out of his thoughts, lifting his head to look at you.
“My- My favorite color?”
“Yeah!”
“Probably shades of brown. They’re generally very neutral tones and you can match them with a lot of different colors, like blue or green.”
“Is that why you have so many brown or tan sweaters?” You joke, earning a bright laugh from him. You were one of the few people who could make him laugh like that.
“Yeah, probably.” He concedes. “Next question?”
“Can you actually read 20,000 words per minute?” You raise an eyebrow teasingly.
“Yeah, I can. Do you not believe me?”
“No, I do, it’s just fascinating to me that one mind can do so much. I mean, you’re amazing, Spence. I couldn’t put a number on the amount of times you’ve been essential to solving a case because you noticed something we didn’t.” You nod in thanks to the waitress as she puts your food down in front of you while Spencer tries to reboot his brain.
“I-I can’t take all the credit. I couldn’t do anything without the rest of you guys.”
“But you can take a big portion of it.”
“I-I mean, I guess.” He shakes his head. “Next question?”
“Okay, this one is… more of a personal thing. For me, I mean.” He nods for you to go on. “What was the first thing you noticed about me when we met?”
“The first thing I noticed about you?” He repeats slowly. You nod, leaning forward in your seat slightly as you waited for his answer. He went back to when you two first met, a few weeks after you joined the B.A.U.
“Reid, get over here.” Prentiss waved Spencer over as he came into the office. He glances over at her and then to the person next to her. He stopped in his tracks as he stared at you, but you didn’t notice him, focused on whatever conversation you were having with Morgan and Garcia.
Spencer studied you from across the office, red slowly creeping up his cheeks. You were so so pretty. Your eyes, your hair, your presence in general, was gorgeous.
“Reid!” He was snapped out of his thoughts by Prentiss yelling his name again.
“Right, uh, sorry.” He comes over quickly, gripping the strap to his bag.
“Right! Okay. [Y/N],” You cut off your conversation with Morgan and Garcia and turn to face Prentiss and Spencer. “This is Dr. Spencer Reid. Reid, this is [Y/N]. They’re the new member, they just finished their training.” You held out your hand for a handshake.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Reid.” You smile at him and his mind blanks, fumbling for something to say.
“Uhm, the amount of pathogens passed during a handshake is staggering, i-it’s actually safer to kiss.” To his surprise, you chuckled brightly.
“I might have to take you up on that.” You tease, winking at him. Prentiss laughs loudly as his face turns bright red. He fumbled over his words for a moment before settling for just smiling awkwardly and nodding.
“The first thing I noticed about you was… everything.” He starts, and you motion for him to continue. “When Prentiss called me over to meet you, I noticed that you seemed really relaxed around them all, you settled into the BAU so easily. Not only that, but you seemed confident as well. And… and pretty. You were— a-and are— really pretty.” He wasn’t even fully aware of what he was saying, even as he let the words fall out of his mouth. “And, the more I got to know you, the more beautiful you became. I found myself drawn to you, like- like a magnet, or something, I don’t know. You’ve never failed to make me smile or feel heard and I-I appreciate that more than you could ever know.”
“Spence… what are you trying to say?” You felt your face heat up as he kept going, and he reached over and grabbed your hands again.
“I-I’m saying,” He licks his lips, taking a deep breath. “I love you.” So, no, Spencer never meant for it to happen this way. He braces himself for your reaction— the probable rejection, the ridiculement. But it never came, instead what came next was something that he didn’t see coming.
“To tell you the truth, Spence.” You bring one of his hands up to press a kiss to his knuckles, “I’ve been meaning to tell you the same thing for a while.”
“You- you have?” He blinks, surprise evident on his face.
“I mean, yeah. Seriously, Spence, how could I not love you? You’re an adorable, dorky, genius with an affinity for rambling and spewing random facts. You’re amazing at poker, puzzles, and… pretty much everything. The more time we spent together, the more I fell in love with you.”
Then you were leaning across the table and suddenly your lips were on his, fierce and passionate, yet soft. Nothing like previous kisses he’s had. It was sweet, so much emotion was put into the one action that it was overwhelming. It left Spencer feeling light and fluttery, and while it only lasted a few seconds, it was perfect.
As you pulled away, he fell back against the chair, face flushed bright red.
“Guess I took you up on that offer, yeah, Spence?” You joke as he sipped his drink to try and calm his quickened heart rate.
“Guess you did, a person of your word.” He laughs brightly.
“Well, it was a promise. And I make good on my promises.”
-
As you drove Spencer back to his apartment, he seemed visibly more comfortable with rambling about things. He was rambling about the song currently playing through the speakers, and you listened intently; nodding and asking him questions as he went.
“This it?” You ask as you pull up to his apartment building. He nods as you pull into a spot and turn off the car. You jump out as he gets out as well.
“What are- what are you doing?”
“Walking you to your door, obviously.”
“You don’t have to do that. I-I have a gun.”
“I know; I want to, though.” He makes no further objections as you grab his hand and he leads you to his apartment.
“I had a really nice time tonight.” He smiles softly, swinging your hands between the two of you as you walk.
“I did too. There’s never a dull moment with you, Spence.”
You spent the rest of the walk in silence, just enjoying each other’s company. You made it to his door, and he turned to face you.
“See you at work.” He pulls out his key, smiling softly at you.
“See you.” You turn to leave before calling out again. “Hey, Spence?”
“Hm?” He turns away from the door, facing you again.
“What do we tell the others?” He chuckles.
“We couldn’t hide anything from them if we tried.” You just laugh, standing up on your toes to kiss him for the second time that night.
“Guess your right. ‘Night, Spence.” And then you were gone, walking back to your car. He stands outside his apartment, relishing the moment you two just shared.
“‘Night.” He whispers, but you were already gone.
He couldn’t wait for tomorrow.