A/N: Rossi and Reid in this one. And again, thank you to everyone who has reviewed, favorited and subscribed!
Reid normally doesn't think about it that much; it bothered him much more when he was a kid. When being different had much worse consequences than embarrassment.
But when the great profiler David Rossi, who has probably never been unable to fit in, sees him struggling with his shoelaces and finally, after a few jumbled failures, managing to tie them using the bunny ears technique that even the name shows is completely childish and not something appropriate for FBI agents, it suddenly seemed very relevant.
He had taken his shoes off to sit more comfortably when he worked on his geographical profile. He'd wanted a more detailed map, so it had been too large to fit on a table and he'd ended up cross-legged on the floor. And then the hard soles of his shoot dug into his legs so he'd taken his shoes off and went back to work.
And then Rossi showed up, knocking on the door and sticking his head through, telling Reid that he was needed on an interview. Reid, who was still always a little excited to be allowed to work with the legendary profiler, had jumped to his feet eagerly and made to follow Rossi out the door.
Only the older man hadn't left his spot leaning against the doorframe; instead he was studying Reid's feet with an amused smile, and with a blushing face Reid went back to his shoes and pulled them on, bending down to lace them up.
And when he looked up from his chore he realized that Rossi had noticed. That the founder of the BAU and one of the men Reid admired the most had noticed that Reid couldn't tie his shoelaces in the proper, adult way.
Reid's blush had deepened and he'd hurried out of the room before Rossi could comment or laugh.
They finished the case that same day and on the jet home Reid managed to avoid Rossi. The next day he comes to the BAU wearing loafers. Anything to escape the older man's condemnation.
For a few days, he wears loafers and he's pretty happy that Rossi has decided to ignore Reid's deficiency. But he sort of worries a little about it too, because what does the experienced profiler think of him now?
So he decides he needs to learn to tie his shoes the proper way and that's why he ends up on the floor of his hallway, close to tears after half an hour of still not managing to do it with any ease or efficiency. In frustration, he throws the shoes at the wall and decides that he's never ever going to wear shoes with laces again.
And his decisions hold for almost ten hours; the morning after he's checking some blogs before the workday begins properly and he tries to look small and unnoticeable as Rossi enters. Apparently, it doesn't work because as soon as Rossi's eyes roam over the bullpen they halt on Reid's figure.
"Reid? Could I have a minute?"
It's not really a question and they both know it so Reid follows the older man, trying to hide the heaviness of his steps. As soon as they're inside the door Rossi hands Reid the bag in his hand that Reid hasn't really paid any notice to. With a small confused frown, Reid pulls out the box that's in it and opens it, revealing its contents.
It's a pair of shoes. With laces.
Not entirely sure whether he's more angry or embarrassed or just completely mortified, Reid looks up at Rossi, not wanting to admit he is very close to tears.
Surprisingly, Rossi doesn't look gloating or smug; he looks genuinely kind and Reid's whatever it is falters.
"We need something to practice on," Rossi says with a small smile and before he quite knows how it happened Reid is sitting in Rossi's comfortable armchair with Rossi opposite him slowly and surprisingly patiently demonstrating how to tie shoelaces the proper way.
And if Hotch sees their impromptu lesson when he peeks his head through the door to ask something or if the team notices Reid's beaming pride as he's finally mastered the task, no-one says anything.
A/N2: This is sort of written under the assumption that Reid does fit in somewhere on the autism-spectrum, probably Aspberger's, and shoelaces is actually one of the things that might cause trouble with it.
