Criminal Minds 1. Chapter 1

_I am sitting on the plane, a book in my hands as the setting sun shines through the windows. Hotch and I are alone, flying back from a consult in New Orleans and I am tired after three nights of forceful wakeness, and yet, I am unable to sleep. I cannot read since my thoughts swim constantly between me and the page, making it impossible to concentrate. _

_And what is it that robs me of my powers of concentration? _

_It is a certain dark-haired man with piercing brown eyes that has the power to ultimately disarm me. He is now lying a short distance away, sleeping on the couch like I should be doing. He is looking more relaxed then I have ever seen him before. His jacket is thrown over a chair along with his tie and he has loosened the buttons on his shirt so that it now hangs open. Beneath the shirt now can be seen a white undershirt and peeking out in places are dark chesthairs. _

_After a few moments of ensuring he is perfectly asleep, I rise from my seat and move to stand over him. Hotch looks so peaceful when he is sleeping. He does now frown and his pink lips are slightly open. He is free from the worries that come with the job, lost in another world of his own making. That is how I feel all the time._

_Before I realize what I am doing, I reach out and allow my fingers to run through his dark locks, something I have wanted to do for a very long time. He does not stir. It is only now that I have come to realize how deeply my feelings for him run. I read somewhere in a book that still waters run deep. Perhaps I drowned in the water a long time ago, before I even cared to admit it._

_It is only recently that I have come to understand I began crushing on Hotch the moment I met my future boss. Tough and hard–as-nails Aaron Hotchner, couldn´t be more different from my own insecure persona, and yet I am drawn to him by a force I do not even care to try and understand. For a long time, I thought it was just a crush and decided to treat it as such, after all he was married and Hotch is not the type to be unfaitful. It was only after Hankel, that desperate hug where we melted into one another, that something changed. My crush turned into love. _

_I look around to make sure the pilots have not emerged from the cockpit, and then lean down, gently joining the lips of Hotch with my own. He, like me, has not had __a shower for about four days due to us working the case, and he is not wearing cologne. I draw in the masculine scent of sweat, soap and something uniquely Hotch. It feels like I am drowning and I have no wish for the moment to end._

_In the end, however, I pull away so I do not awaken my boss. I am startled when I meet the dark eyes of Hotch._

"_I am a light sleeper at the best of times, Reid." _


	2. Chapter 2

_Hotch POV_

_Truth be told, I have loved him for a long while now. I never considered myself a bisexual or was even attracted to men until I met Reid. I told myself that forming a bond with my subordinate was bound to lead to confusion and problems. I thought I managed to lay the ghost to rest, until he resurrected it by kissing me that day on the plane. For the first time, I was confronted by the stark fact that he might feel the same for me. I was so surprised that after the quip, I merely turned my back to the wall and pretended to sleep once more. Once the plane lands, I make my way down the stairs to the runway and to the car, wait until he gets in and silently drive him home. I want all the while to say something, and yet something stops me as Reid dejectedly gets out of the car when we have arrived at his home, retrieves his belongings from the backseat and walks inside with slumping shoulders. _

_For the next few weeks, I observe him silently, watching how Reid begins to withdraw from the others on the team. He no longer joins us for drinks after work or exchanges witticisms with Morgan. He scoffs at the sisterly affections J.J. shows him and shakes Emily´s arm away when she casually puts it around the shoulders of the young genius. His mood is a perpetual wonderment to his colleagues, who cannot for the life of them figure out the cause, perhaps his mother is ill? Only I know the true cause. _

_My carefully thought out plan was to avoid Reid until a better solution could be contrived. However, that went astray when Chief Strauss called me a month after our encounter on the plane and demanded that I interrogate a serial killer in Oregon. He is of Russian descent and since Prentiss is unwell, I therefore am forced to bring the young genius with me seeing as he has read Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky in the original language. We need to find the body of his last victim, the one that was never found to ensure he receives the death penalty. In the end, it is Reid that find the clue on a written note in Russian in the suspect´s jail cell, puts together the pieces and we are home after two days in Oregon._

_After having been almost sleep deprived for 48 hours, we are both prepared to drop where stand as we enter the plane and I am actually glad for the length of the flight. I sit in the seat by the window, expecting Reid to gratefully take the sofa, but instead he chooses the seat next to mine. We both exchange common observations on the case we just solved, the scenery and the like, until we both lean back in our seats and relax. I kindly allow Reid to take up most of the space on the armrest by crossing my arms over my chest. Once he has closed his eyes, however, and his breathing has slowed down, I make my move. His fingers lie upon the armrest and before I am able to stop myself, I reach out and cover his hand with mine. My heart is almost beating out of my chest. I carefully look over at Reid and see his brown eyes looking directly at me, quzzically, but he has a small smile on his face, as if he wanted to ask why this took me so long. _

_Reid´s words break the silence. "I´m a light sleeper, too." _

_All I can do is nod in return and I am about to remove my hand when he entwines our fingers together, signalling he seems fine with the way things are developing, and my heart is now jumping for joy. His fingers are warm and soft beneath mine, the one place standing still in a world that keeps moving. _

_Reid and I stay like this for the remainder of the flight. When one of us has to stand up for a drink of water, we return quickly and take up the position we occupied before. Both of us seem content to simply be in the moment, skin on skin. We have no need for answers because the questions have yet to be asked. _

_Yet, my logical side is aware that we cannot go on like this for much longer. Reid is a man of practical reason. He will want to analyze what is happening until we are both blue in the face. He will want to know where this is headed. He will, like the ladies of 18th Century England, want to know exactly what my intentions towards him are. _

_I am quite unsure if I have the answer to any of these questions. _


End file.

Criminal Minds, Romance