Hello!

Here's my third fanfic about this marvelous couple.

Tannerose5 compared Emily to a cougar and I found it incredibly clever. Then I thought, for Reid, to whom she's strong and beyond perfect, why couldn't she also be seen as a graceful and majestic dragon?

Thanks for reading and please do let me know your opinion about it!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds doesn't belong to me, but this fic and its ideas sure do. ;)

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In the Dark

"Me and the Dragon can chase all the pain away" - Placebo

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Reid stood tall in the dark for a few moments.

When he got used to it, he could clearly see it. Emily's body was lying on a chair, being lightened up only by the weak striped light that came in through the shutters of the window. She was sitting with her legs open, supporting her elbows on them. She'd look definitely very manly, if there was a shirt covering her torso. Yet, all that he could see was her tender flesh and, occasionally, evidences of a black bra.

On the pitch darkness, her eyes weren't black stones anymore. On the contrary, they were on fire, and they wildly burnt so full of power that Reid could perfectly feel their tremendous heat. She would be stunning if her lips weren't swollen or if her fore head hadn't been bruised. She would be drop dead gorgeous if it weren't for her messy hair or for the river of blood that flowed down her left arm.

Emily looked eerily grotesque.

He was dazed. She was pure beauty.

Reid dared to approach the feline woman, carrying in his hands a first aid box that he had found in less than a minute – well, they were at the BAU after all, he knew that place like no one thanks to his… "special ability".

Though he was getting close, her gaze didn't sooth as it usually did. On the contrary, it got more intense and penetrating. Her body was still being ignited by adrenaline.

- I came to help.

She did a funny sound with her tongue and her hands intertwined with one another.

- No need, thanks.

- I insist. – the man stated. He opened the box and got a glimpse of the dark, old and ripped jeans. Reid recalled how she was thrown over a sofa and crashed against the floor. He pictured her being slapped over and over again and stabbed on the arm with a piece of a broken, transparent green jar. He could still hear her strangled scream as she kicked one member of the already discovered group of murderers. She would have knocked him out if another one hadn't shown up behind her back. Emily was brutally grabbed by her hair as a knife dangerously was pulled off. It would have surely torn apart her throat if Reid hadn't fired a righteous bullet to the assaulter's intestines.

It had been a very, very hard case which was, thankfully, closed.

- How are the others? – she asked in a bad mood but true concern. His help was obviously needed but she hated to let him see her like that. She was pathetically feeble.

Reid kneeled in front of her and got what was needed to clean the wounds, starting with the one on the forehead.

- Fine. Morgan's leg is going to heal quickly and JJ's arm isn't broken. Rossi got a few bruises, nothing serious, and Hotch is made of steel, as you certainly are aware of.

She felt a laughter forming on the cave of her throat, but it didn't get even close to her lips. He was closer now, allowing her to finally see him in the dark.

The blood on his hair shone.

- I'm sure of it… what's that in your head?

- Oh, this isn't mine – Reid said, touching his hair and smiling like an innocent child – I only got a few cuts which I'll clean later. At the moment you're my priority.

Emily wasn't sure if feeling relieved was alright. The amount of blood that was filling the young man's body couldn't come from a "few cuts". There was a big, deep one on his face that must have been aching tremendously and surely caused a cold shiver on Reid's spine when it was made. It would scar him if he didn't hurry up. However, that aside, there was no explanation for the redness in the man.

She raised slowly her right hand in the darkness and let it rest on his cheek, on a place that wasn't hurt, but sticky: a moisture of blood and sweat. Though he was a mess of poured, splattered red venom, Reid still looked like a cute little man. The dark spark of light that twinkled discreetly in his eyes would have been noted if her mind wasn't so blurred.

He moved his arm in order to reach hers and, with the movement, a slight sign of pain was shown. Emily noticed it. He definitely was hurt somewhere. She wanted to discover the wound, but couldn't due to the lack of light. She wanted to know if it hurt, but ended up asking an entirely different thing, that had unconsciously been bothering her:

- Why are you covered in so much blood?

- I fought a lot… in the kitchen – he said naturally, not interrupting his slow actions. Their hands touched and from both their coldness, warmth was born. The woman tried hard to remember if he was covered in red when he went and rescued her, in vain. However, she did recall the path made to leave the house: the living room was at the end of the corridor, and the kitchen was the first division on the left for those who entered the house. It was the last division, the very last thing, she saw before leaving.

Her face twitched in horror.

- Oh, don't worry, it's okay… - he tried to reassure – it's fine.

- What the Hell happened in there, Reid? – she ignored his sayings, lowering her head so that she could gaze directly at him.

Her closeness and concern made him blush a little, but she could not see it. While holding her hand between his, he breathed heavily and spoke in a rhythmic slumber.

- The daughter and the dogs were killed there. I had just found them when… – he gulped, trying to cool down and control the shakings that were coming back. All the flashes were exploding in his mind again. The screams, the fights, the knives, the bodies, the chairs breaking, the objects hatching against the floor… there was so much noise, so much blades, so much fear and panic. Panic all over and attacks all over and over and over, and bloody fear all over and…

- Reid! – he was startled and looked at her desperately. His body was trembling. Dealing with her excruciating, she maintained her position and squeezed meaningfully his hands. The cold heartedly façade was gone, he was he again. – Snap out of it. It's over, you hear me? Every thing's gonna be fine.

He blinked and it was as if he wasn't seeing the damned kitchen anymore. Confusingly, he assimilated that he was sitting, and not slipping in the blood and falling on the floor. He pressed his feet harder on the floor, trying to regain stability. Then, he focused all his attention on Emily again. It felt like he was seeing her for the first time.

- You… you're here… - he said, frowning and acknowledging that fact.

- Of course I am…

His face was twisted with a sudden sadness. He let go of her hand and, still on his knees, he framed her face in his hands. She looked beautiful in every way. Emily was beautiful – anywhere, everywhere. How dreadful would it be, living without her? How much pain would be consuming him in a world where there'd be no Emily Prentiss anymore? Until when would he be able to walk? Wait, walk? Would he even be able to crawl?

He was cracking.

- Y-you're here…

- Reid… - she covered his hands with hers.

He was touching her with the kind of strength which tries to make sure she wouldn't fade away, that she was real and not only a fragment of a pained memory.

However, this wasn't enough. He needed more.

On an impulse, his body raised and he stood up while holding her still sitting body between his arms. He ignored her hurt and discreet scream and the pain in his arm. They were worthless when compared to holding her. He wanted to absorb her, dive in her essence, flow in her veins and mingle in with her insides.

- It hurts – she quietly cried.

- You almost died today – he spoke softly and shakily – you almost died…

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and embraced his waist, burying her face on his bloodied collegial coat. It would have bothered her if it was his blood.

- But you saved me.

- I did… - his voice was strangled – I made it this time…

Emily pulled him gently away and brought him down once again, so that she could stare into those sugary eyes.

- I'm sure you'll keep it up and you'll be successful in every single time.

He kindly smiled. There was nothing he wanted more than that; her life was the most precious thing for his brilliant mind. Being able to protect it righteously was such an honor… He felt so oddly blessed for having what was required to do so it was nearly funny. People were aware of his disbelief in God and reproved his ability to decompose Christian faith in an apiece, but at that moment, at that single and brief moment – as he was feeling her bursting life in between his arms – he could almost feel himself as a man of faith.

That was her colossal power over him.

- You're just so special Emily… so, so precious… - he didn't mutter. He didn't even blink. However, his eyes did have a different glow this time. Watery feelings were threatening to overflow, he felt so genuinely happy in that dark room as he look at a badly bruised friend and, simultaneously, he was so scared that she would fade, that she'd leave him perishing in his well known solitude…

- Reid…

He lowered his head.

- I, I'm sorry for this nonsense, really, it just seems that I can't conceal my feelings. They are so many and so powerful all at the same time, I can't deal with all of it, I…

- Shh… - she lifted his chin again. Would she ever get tired of gazing at him? Did he know how much ache it caused her, seeing him like that? Bathed in soiled blood, full of preoccupation and lost, running away, in some foggy road she couldn't follow… It always made her want to rip out her heart, not being able to be useful to him, not having enough power to shield him… If she wasn't capable of that, if she wasn't strong enough to do that, then what was she supposed to do? Walk around in circles at a panic room, scratching her nails on the wall until all that she could see was her own, red flesh? Or maybe bang her head and scream like a laboratory's experiment until she felt no more than a real symphony of pain and madness? – Reid, I...

Her eyes burnt. Her brows come together. Her lip trembled.

- I…

"I" what? Reid wasn't able to think. He actually was unable to do so for the first time in an absurd long period of it. He could only feel. And he felt so much, so deeply for every motive and every emotion... All of them coming from and going to Emily. Emily, who was almost crying, just like him. Emily, who he stupidly loved, as if she was some heroine from an epic romance.

Emily, who was way more than that.

- Emily, I… - he couldn't move, but a tear was shed.

From his eye.

From her eye.

- … I'm so bloody… - he said, kind of laughing.

She smiled.

- Yes, yes you are… - their hands had intertwined at some point.

She laughed.

- I… I think I'm going to explode.

Their hands hold each other with more strength.

- Me too… - he said, laying his forehead on hers.

- Why is that? – she murmured.

- Because I… I…

She broke her hands free and, ignoring the consuming pain, placed them on each of his cheeks.

She heard it.

- Me too…

- Huh?

Those ebony eyes pierced him and he dove into a black lake.

- I love you.

He pouted lightly and looked confused for a second. Then his expression got serious and it was as if he had vanished, giving place to a very similar, but much stronger, man. This was something that Emily had witnessed a few times, the unperceivable changes of traces in his face.

- I won't leave you. Not now, not ever.

- Wow, slow down, lover boy.

Reid laughed. She made herself sound like Morgan on purpose. Maybe Emily was right, maybe he was advancing too fast at her eyes, but screw it. He had felt everything for her for so long it was like she was a part of him already, and he knew that she also started to feel something for him at some point. They could have been together; they could have tried and worked it out if Doyle hadn't decide to "kill" her, if she hadn't decide to die. He had every right to worry sickly about her, ever since that happened and way before that, now that he recalled her being beaten up to protect him.

It was true that they had grown since those times and that a lot of complicated feelings had been born and added to the existing ones. He got to know a sweeter Emily as well as a darker Spencer. And he liked it. They were perfectly balanced for each other, a flawless match of Yin and Yang – his Yin with her Yang, his Yang with her Yin.

Having this in mind, he comprehended that what was in front of them wasn't one of their match-making moments. Now they were a bloody Yin. Both of them, fused and mixed as one.

Fused and mixed, he though as he leaned in even closer. Emily's mocking tone was replaced by a serious and hypnotizing attitude, like she was pulling him in. He stopped when her lips were tremulously pressed against his. He then automatically opened his mouth, more than willing to take her in, and placed his hands on the back of her neck. Their first kiss was exchanged in the pitch darkness and smelled of blood, but it couldn't be purer or most beautiful than it was. They had held back for so long thanks to insecurity and fear, it such a waste of time…

Reid could feel through the kiss how much Emily cared and wanted him. How much she had been bruised and how seriously willing she was to, nonetheless, take that change. The woman he was kissing is a wild nature force who's asking him to heal her. And he would, he would gladly chase all of her, all of his, pain away. Reid's chest was ready to implode due to the uncontrollable amount of happiness and hope he was feeling. There's no way they'd be separated now. There was no one capable of doing so.

As the kiss got warmer and deeper, he was sure of it.

They were irrefutably meant to be together, until the end and even after it.