AN: Decided to make another H/R story. My muse and my other story currently aren't speaking, and this is what happens. I move to another muse temporarily. Spoiler for Revelations and episodes after.
The young genius had always creeped Aaron Hotchner out a bit. Ask the boy anything having to do with science, and he could ramble for twenty minutes, using words you hadn't even known existed. Ask him something personal? No answer. Or an awkward, stuttering, nervous one. Neither was pleasant, and the sheer brilliance of his mind without an emotional guide could have disastrous consequences. The kid just wasn't stable. He needed someone.
Apparently, he had chosen Aaron to be that someone.
He first noticed it long ago- glances that lasted just a bit too long, questions answered with a tad more exuberance. Aaron shook them off along with the accompanying shivers. Doctor Reid was, for lack of a better word, creepy. Maybe it had something to do with the way he focused so hard on the task at hand, or the slightly drawling, spaced-out voiced he used to answer someone rousing him from his state of total concentration. Maybe it was the way his hair constantly hid some part of his face, making his expression hard to read. Or maybe it was the way that recently, the creep factor had severely lessened.
The drug use, the struggle, the pain of it- it made the kid more human in Aaron's eyes. The conquering of that demon made him respect the man it had made the kid. And when Aaron found himself taking more notice of it all, the glances, the enthusiasm- in fact, counting it mentally every day, like a high-school girl tallying the times her crush looked at her in math class- it surprised him less then he thought it should have.
Which was okay, he supposed. Being noticed, admired, valued, even, was no longer common for him, the exception being Jack. After Haley left, he felt very lonely and very.... insecure. The feel of someone watching Aaron, wanting him, started to feel kind of nice.
But, he figured, it was like a Goth lesbian trying to date the Christian (and straight) head cheerleader. There were too many obstacles in the way for it to work. Lifestyle, hierarchical status..... And orientation! Can't forget that.
It was true, however, that as someone (Aaron couldn't remember who) once said, that sexual preference was flexible. Straight men in prison could have relations with another man, if no other options were available. It could also be true that love had no gender, as many LGBT campaigns advertised. Plus, Spencer's hair was kinda long for a guy.
Not that he was in love with Spencer. No, he knew he wasn't. But Aaron could see that Spencer (no, not Spencer. REID.) possessed some distinctly attractive traits. He had perfectly smooth skin, he had no limits in how far he would go to protect others, he slept like a cat on the jet- stretching out or curling up according to the temperature, which was (he had to admit it) absolutely adorable. Aaron had gently tucked a blanket around the sleeping man more than once.
No, he wasn't in love with him. But something about Reid did strike him in a way that wasn't completely platonic. As long as both of them kept these feelings under the radar, Aaron could wait and see.
(NOT, he firmly told himself, wait and see what would happen. He would just wait and see whether anymore of these feelings developed. He hadn't made up his mind to wait till his control- which was formidable by any standard- snapped and then go after the kid.)
Aaron sighed and smiled up at the sun. He'd never been too good at lying to himself.