Title: Defining - a sequel to Belonging
Author: Dri
Pairing: Morgan/Reid, always.
Rating: PG
Summary: Tonight Spencer still belonged.
Spoilers: Takes place immediately after my other fic, Belonging. You can find it here - .com/8359.h tml#cutid1
Author's note: Another stand alone in my Four Times universe. What can I do? Reid wanted to eat out, so there you go guys. This fic takes place way before the events in SoY, meaning that our guys are happier here. Also all the mistakes belong to me, because my dear betas Ana and Kelly have no idea I spent the last couple of evenings writing this little fic. Still I hope you guys enjoy it. Oh, and just to finish, Pizzeria Paradiso does exist, and according to goole, is one of the best gay friendly places in Washington DC.
Disclaimer:Not mine. Still a poor girl.
Comments are loved, framed and cherished!
Defining
Three ounces of crème Zabaglione and sixteen slices of pear boiled in a mix of Port wine, lemon and water, precisely cut by Spencer in four quarters each. All the calculations he had done to dip each quarter of the pear three times in the crème went downhill when he started sharing his desert with Derek. His boyfriend had been more interested in the fruit than in the crème, and now Spencer had only one quarter of the pear left and too much crème to go with it in his plate.
"Spoon up the pear with the cream, pretty boy."
"You're supposed to dip the pear in the crème, this way you can have the perfect balance of flavor and better appreciate all the hard work the chef has been through to have the dish taste just right."
Derek rolled his eyes and got the spoon from Spencer, and faster than Spencer could have protested, rounded up the remaining crème Zabaglione and pear in said spoon and brought it up to Spencer's mouth.
"So," Derek challenged him, quirking one eyebrow when Spencer hesitated to accept the offer.
It wasn't that Spencer had a problem with the way the dessert would end up in his digestive system – after all it didn't matter to the hydrochloric acid and gastric juice that would be the dessert's final destination once it went down his esophagus and towards his stomach.
It was just that they were in public, and no matter how gay friendly Pizzeria Paradiso was, Spencer took a look around the room to see if the other patrons were frowning or making faces at them, or if mothers were covering their kids' eyes so they wouldn't be traumatized for life by the image of his boyfriend spoon feeding him.
Since the few kids present, their families and anyone else in the room, as expected, were just going on with their business, Spencer had no other option but to accept reality: he quite didn't know how to react to PDAs, and Derek may be new to this gay stuff, but the man was all for touching and doing things (be it in public or not) that made Spencer fall for him harder and deeper each passing day.
And it was Derek Morgan, handsome and strong Derek Morgan, in a warm late spring evening, wearing an amused and yet fond smile in a packed restaurant, offering skinny Spencer Reid a spoonful of dessert.
The genius in Spencer finally kicked in and he offered his companion a shy smile before opening his mouth and shutting his eyes to accept the treat.
The slight larger amount of the yellowish crème tasted spicier and sweeter than expected, and the pear melted between Spencer's tongue and the roof of his mouth, until Spencer could linger to the treat no more and let it slide down his throat, making him long for more.
When Spencer opened his eyes, for a moment the light in the room blurred the smile Derek was directing at him. "Enjoyed the food?"
"You have no idea," Spencer said, twirling his tongue around his lips then settling down to wait for Derek's reaction. For some unknown reason Derek had a weird fixation about Spencer's lips. And contrary to popular belief, Spencer was no fool and knew how to make use of his assets.
Well, at least sometimes.
Okay, so well, he found out Derek had a thing for his lips totally by accident, but the merit of making good use of it since then belonged only to Spencer and to Spencer alone.
Anyway, it never failed: amusement gave place to lust, and Spencer could swear he heard a bit of a groan coming from his boyfriend before Derek spoke again.
"I could always order another one of those and leave you and your dessert alone."
"Wouldn't be half the fun without you here to watch it and enhance the experience," Spencer teased back, thumbing for a second the outside of Derek's wrist. "But I'll have another one if you share it with me."
"Thanks, pretty boy, but no. I couldn't pack anything else even if I wanted to."
"It's the beer."
"Perhaps," Derek says, laughing and shaking his head. "But what I really would like to know is where all this food you wolf down goes to." Then, getting very close to Spencer, shoulders touching and warm breath against Spencer's ear, Derek whispered very softly and full of meaning, "After almost four months of getting close and personal to your skinny white ass, I can guarantee you haven't put on any extra ounce of fat."
Spencer blushed and considered lowering his eyes to the table, but thought better of that and held Derek's gaze instead. "That's because you've been systematically pounding any extra weight out of said ass for almost as long."
Derek leaned closer to Spencer, the way he did when he wanted a kiss, then he perhaps thought better about that and put some distance between them, but not before baring a seductive smile made of even white teeth and leering eyes that were way more effective to melt Spencer's insides than the brush of lips he would have gotten if Derek had decided to kiss him.
"I help keeping you in shape and what do I get in return? You molesting a pear right in front of me."
"I didn't hear you complaining. Besides, you should have said something if you wanted the last of my pere."
"It's not enough, Spencer."
In the moment it took Spencer to realize that the teasing was gone and something pretty serious was going on, Derek had already reached out and covered Spencer's hand with his own and then distracted Spencer by closing dark fingers around Spencer's pale ones. Derek's lips were pulled into a line too thin to be called a smile, edged by a kind of shyness that bordered embarrassment.
"I don't want just the last of anything. I want…I want everything, Spencer, from beginning to end."
A blink of eyes later and Derek's awkwardness had been replaced by cheekbones that had stretched those lips that tasted like sin and all those flavors that made his being with Derek a surreal experience into a tender if not expectant smile.
Had Spencer not been right there sharing a table with the man, he would have had a hard time believing that he, gawky, awkward Spencer Reid, had been in the receiving end of such a glance coming from no one other than Derek Morgan, the man that could have been the reason Morris Rosenberg developed the Rosenberg self-esteem scale, no matter if Derek hadn't been born until 1973.
It had probably been a trick of the light and the wine he had had with his dinner. Derek couldn't possibly be-
"Hey, Reid, everything okay?"
"Yeah," Spencer replied, pulling back his hand and tucking his hair behind his ears just to buy himself some time and come back to this reality of Derek looking at him as if waiting for an answer to that unasked question still lingering in the space between them. "It's just that…"
"What, pretty boy?"
"You're not… this is not a Dear John kind of moment, is it?"
"No," Derek said, taking a deep breath. "This is the moment you tell me how serious you are about this, about us."
From the first time Derek had kissed him to the last time they had sex before coming down to this restaurant for dinner, Spencer had a little speech of his own and even the first draft of his transfer request ready to be used when the novelty of being with another man had dissipated and Derek told him what they had was good, but that it was time for them to go their separate ways.
Somehow a Dear John kind of moment would have been easier for Spencer to handle, after all that was what he had been bracing himself for ever since Derek started putting his move on him after that fateful night at JJ's; or when he had walked into the office the morning after he had taken Derek to his bed for the first time only to find a dozen cups of strawberry jello waiting for him on his desk and Derek smiling at him with a cup of steaming coffee in his hand.
"Reid, if I'm moving too fast-"
"No!" Spencer rushed to assure him, turning his hand up to grasp Derek's fingers. "I just wasn't expecting… this. Do you…Do you want a commitment?"
"I've been committed to this from the beginning, Reid," Derek said softly. "All I need to know is if for you it's been the same."
"I know what I want out of this, Derek," Spencer said, the effort to keep looking straight into Derek's eyes draining all of his strength. "And I believe you do, too. I just don't want to pressure you into anything you're not ready for."
"I know, baby, and I appreciate that," Derek said, bringing Spencer's hand up to his lips. "What we have is good, Reid, I hope you believe me about that. I haven't been with anyone but you since Henry's party, kid, just so you know how serious I am about us."
"So, does it mean that I really have a boyfriend now?" Spencer asked lightly, enjoying the moment, the knowledge that now this thing they had had a name while Derek asked a waiter for their check.
"You've had a boyfriend for the last four months, kid, and you'd better not forget that."
Derek paid their bill, and hand in hand they walked into the night, heading for the subway station since they had left their cars at Derek's. "So are you up to keeping your end of our bargain?"
"I have no idea of what you're talking about?"
"Oh, you don't?" Derek asked, plastering himself to Spencer's front and wrapping his arms around Spencer's back. "Take me out to dinner and I'll put out for you like I never did to that loser back in New Orleans," he said, mock-thinning his voice to remind Spencer of that earlier promise.
Spencer laughed, wrapping his arms around Derek's neck. "Curtis was not a loser, you possessive Neanderthal."
"Possessive and jealous, and you'd better remember that, oh boyfriend of mine." Derek pulled Spencer closer before sealing his claiming of ownership with a mind blowing kiss that made Spencer's legs go unsteady and at the same time left a bitter taste deep inside of him, right where the sheer panic of losing Derek shook his core and made him weak.
Spencer closed his eyes tighter and willed all of his fears away. He knew his days with Derek were numbered, but for now he let himself enjoy the moment and the happiness of being so thoroughly kissed by the man all his dreams were made of right there in the street, out in the open. He knew all good things must come to an end, and for Spencer that usually happened sooner rather than later.
'But not tonight,' Spencer thought, resting his forehead against Derek's. Tonight he still belonged, and he would cling to and cherish this moment until fate took it away from him.
Thanks for reading.
