Nervously, I pulled my phone out and checked the time again. Just past 10am. Again I looked around and worried that maybe Reid had second-guessed agreeing to help me study. I mean, once again it was one of the few days off that we'd been given, and instead of relaxing, he was taking the subway up to my school's campus to help me figure out my psychology paper.

That's it. I'm just gonna call him and tell him he's off the hook. He doesn't need to waste his day up here with me, I finally decided, dialing Reid's number. Just as I went to hit call, I heard footsteps behind me and a timid voice say,

"Hi. I'm sorry I'm late, the subway was a little delayed today."

Admittedly turning faster than I probably should have, I couldn't help grinning up at Reid as he shuffled up to me. He had his usual messenger bag slung across him and his long hair was a little scruffy and haphazard, but it wasn't a lie to say the man looked really good today.

He had on tan slacks that fit him a little better than they normally did, and a pale lavender shirt tucked neatly into them. His tie was a few shades darker than the shirt, and buttoned over the rest was a black sleeveless sweater vest.

I hadn't noticed I was staring until Reid cleared his throat and prompted, "Aria?"

Smooth, DiMaggio. "Oh, hi. You're really fine – I mean, it's fine," I rushed out, giving him a quick, nervous smile as I tucked my curls behind my ear. Reid gave me a shy smile and nodded in understanding as I waved a hand towards the library. "Thank you so much. Are you sure you don't mind spending your day off going over vectors?"

"Not at all," he assured, shaking his head and instantly falling into step beside me as we headed for the building. "In fact, I found a few books I had lying around that should help walk you through the basics."

As he patted his messenger bag faithfully, I looked up at him in surprise. "You have multiple books on vector algebra?"

"I, uh, I do," he said quickly, ducking his head. "I guess now it pays for me to be a nerd."

"I don't think you're a nerd," I promised him as we climbed the steps. He quirked a brow at me and I giggled. "Okay. You are, but it's in the best way."

"I'll take your word for it," Reid smiled as he ducked his head, a flush of pink on his cheeks. To my surprise he moved ahead of me and grabbed the door, pulling it open and stepping back to allow me inside. I nearly let out another giddy giggle as I smiled to myself and slipped past him.

"Thank you," I said when he reached my side again. We both fell quiet as I led us through the library, commandeering a table by the window for us to spread out on. We settled across from one another, and as I tugged out my homework, Reid took out five different books and stacked them at his side.

When he saw me gaping at the pile he cleared his throat. "Vector algebra is something I find quite fascinating. Do you understand what you're going over in class?"

"Um, honestly? Not really," I sighed, propping an elbow on the table and slumping down, chin dropping into my hand. "I mean, I did when the class first started, but now we're on like head to tail sequences and like, figuring out how to turn a vector into a unit…"

Reid lit up as he listened to my confused jumble of words. Seeing his reaction, I grabbed my textbook and flipped to my assignment, sliding it to him. He skimmed the page in a handful of seconds and instantly grabbed one of his own books.

"Let's go over what a vector is. Now, you know what a scalar is, right?"

Excited that I actually knew that, I nodded quickly and said, "it's a quantity that only has a magnitude, not a direction, right?"

"Precisely," he said, a hint of pride in his voice. It sent a tingle of warmth through me that had me eager to earn his praise again. "Now, branching off that, a vector is just a mathematical object that has both magnitude and direction. The head to tail sequence is just the method of adding the two vectors. So, if we look at the first problem, it has vector A here…"

Reid was instantly lost to his teachings, one hand flying a mile a minute over both my textbook and his own, the other scribbling out the graph as he planted the two arrows for me. He worked me through the first problem in under five minutes – easily beating out my previous record of an hour – and then turned the textbook to me.

"Alright. The second question is nearly the same, it's just got a slight change in the arrow placement. Map them for me."

He held out the pencil for me and I looked between it and him. I blinked and asked meekly, "could – could you show me again? I'm probably just gonna mess this up –"

"You probably will," he assured, and at the look of surprise – and a hint of offense – he explained, "but that's the best way to learn. Do it how you think it needs to be done, and I can correct you if you don't get it right."

Slowly, I took the pencil and then looked down at the graph. Hand pathetically close to shaking, I drew out the arrows. I was nervous, okay? Reid was the best possible tutor I could have for this stupid assignment, but having him teach me was a little daunting. He was so incredibly smart and I was over here struggling my third week into class.

I knew it was super far-fetched to hope he'd ever be interested in someone like me, but I liked to live in my daydreams sometimes and showing him how stupid I was kind of crushed the hope for me.

Once I had them plotted, Reid tapped the lines. "That's good. Now, draw the third line to connect the points, and then write out the equation."

I did as he instructed and slowly mapped out what I needed, and then wrote out what I thought was right. Reid leaned over a little closer and asked, "can I borrow the pencil?"

I handed it over, cheeks burning when I realized I'd gotten it wrong. He underlined the parts of the equation I'd messed up and I sighed. "I'm sorry. You explained it really well I just –"

"You don't need to apologize. This is complicated. And you're actually really close. We just need to adjust the brackets a bit. Remember, here, the P and Q are our vectors, and a is our scalar. So, with that in mind –"

"Oh!" I realized, taking the pencil back instantly and leaning a little more over the table. "The brackets would be here, then. So then I'd just add these two numbers and…" I scribbled down a number and tapped the paper. "This would be the answer."

"That's it!" he agreed eagerly. "You've got it!"

With a laugh of relief, I looked up to thank him and paused, realizing for the first time just how close we were. We were both leaning over the table, noses nearly brushing as we both looked up at one another.

Though we both realized just how close we were, neither of us said anything. Neither of us moved. For a moment, I was lost to the soft, swirling caramel of his eyes and I couldn't look away, couldn't move away.

Finally, after nearly thirty seconds of silent staring, we both snapped out of it and settled back in our seats quickly. "You made that super easy. I think you need to take over for my professor."

"That wasn't all me," he deflected with a shake of his head, shyly tucking his hair behind his ear. "You picked it up really quickly. You're a good student."

As I tried to keep the goofy smile off my face, Reid tugged my textbook back over to him and flipped the page. I reached out and tapped the next problem. "I'm hoping you're as good with this next part as you were just now."

"Base vectors? I am," he assured, grabbing yet another book. "Now, essentially, they're just a set of vectors selected as a base to represent all the other vectors. Hence the name. The idea is to construct each vector from the addition of vectors along the base directions. For example…"

For nearly two hours, Reid and I were lost to the depth of my physics book. He worked slowly and patiently with me as the problems got harder, not seeming to mind when he had to explain the same thing four different times.

On the last problem, it'd gotten so confusing we'd both ended up on the same side of the table, hunched over my notebook, surrounded by four different books and a pile of crumpled up paper. Again, Reid scrawled out the problem for me and prompted once more,

"Remember. The value of the triple product is equal to the volume of the parallelepiped constructed from the vectors."

"Right, yeah," I muttered, erasing what I'd just wrote and instead scrawling out another attempt at the right equation. "Like this right?"

"Yes. Now, on the graph, draw out that last section and then we can get the last number we need."

With a sigh, my pencil hovered over the graph and I shook my head. "I don't remember where to start. Am I starting with the sin or with the cos?"

"You'll start here," he explained, and his own hand wrapped over my own. "Then, you'll take it back down here…"

This was doing absolutely nothing to help with the jumble my mind was in. The feeling of his long, slim fingers covering my own instantly wiped out any of the minimal knowledge I'd been struggling to hold onto for this equation. Slowly, he moved my hand to the left of the page, and instead of letting go, he moved with me to draw the line.

I tried to focus on what he was saying. I really, really did. But now he had moved so close to me his chest was pressed to my arm, and his free hand had come to wrap over the back of my chair so he could help maneuver the pencil. All I could think about was the feeling of Reid against me and the soft, intoxicating smell of clean laundry and fresh coffee.

It was almost pathetic how bad I had it for the handsome doctor at my side, and there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop me from falling even further for him. I was totally, completely lost to Spencer Reid.

Spencer

For the first time ever, he couldn't instantly calculate the equation in front of him. The numbers were there, the formula was precise, but all he could think about was how soft Aria's skin was, how good her hair smelled, how she seemed to lean back into him as he moved even closer…

"Is this right?"

Her voice pulled him from his distracted thoughts until he made the mistake of looking down at her again. Her head was tipped back, just inches from resting against his shoulder, her soft hazel eyes blinking up at him and scattering the few thoughts he'd managed to gather.

Until he'd met Aria, physical appearance hadn't been something he'd ever really paid attention to. Sure, Lila Archer had been attractive, but it hadn't been enough to linger with him for months on end. With Aria… Aria was different. Not that it was a surprise, she was so different for him with so many things, but he truly couldn't fathom how enamored he was with her beauty.

Morgan had always talked about being drawn to specific characteristics in a person; about having a type. He hadn't fully understood what that'd meant, especially when Morgan really only seemed to consider a woman's physical attributes over everything else. He'd asked Spencer a couple of times, and his answer had been simple.

Intelligence, an eagerness to learn, enjoyment of reading, benevolence, honesty.

It was always the answer he gave and Morgan had never been pleased with it. He'd always ask, what about looks, pretty boy? There's gotta be somethin' you like in a lady.

Appearance wasn't important to him. As many times as Morgan insisted that couldn't be true, Reid had been completely truthful. It didn't matter to him what someone looked like, and it still didn't overall. He hadn't been attracted to Aria because of how she looked. It was the kindness in her eyes and the warmth of the smile she'd given him the first day they'd met. It was her quiet brilliance that she downplayed, the unending curiosity to have him teach her trivial things, the honesty in her voice when she assured him she loved having him talk about the tree population in Virginia…

Now, though, he had developed a preference. A type. A set of things that he liked in a woman that made her even more attractive on top of her mind and personality.

Soft, chocolate curls that fell in imperfect spirals around a soft, sweet face. Gentle, curious hazel eyes that held a glint of emerald and gold in the sunlight, that blinked up at him patiently and set his heart racing all over again. Small, delicate hands that fit perfectly in his, that flitted over graphs faster and faster the more confidence they gained.

The soft, full pink lips that stretched into genuine warm smiles every time he lost his train of thought and could do nothing but stare nervously, willing his 187 IQ to catch up to his racing heart.

"I'm sorry. What was that?" he asked sheepishly; the giggle that Aria gave him set sparks of happiness fluttering through his chest. She finally pulled her hand out of his grasp and tapped the paper beneath them.

"Is this right?"

Spencer spared a moment to look away from her to study the equation. Pride swelled in his chest as he gave her a swift nod. As much as she'd struggled the last hour, she'd managed to finally understand the equation.

"You've got it. See? I told you you'd get it."

"It took me like six hours," she huffed, slumping back in the seat, back against the arm he had over the top of her chair. He knew she must've felt it against her but she didn't move to pull away.

"Vectors are complicated. Honestly, it's very impressive you were able to pick it up as quickly as you did," he assured, trying not to sound as excited as he was. To say that her intelligence was one of his favorite things about her was a severe understatement. When he thought she couldn't be any more brilliant than she already was, Aria always found a way to surprise him.

"You're too nice to me," she deflected again, still not making an effort to move away even though they'd finished the last problem. Instead, she shifted to face him a little more. When he started to shake his head she insisted, "really, you are. You spent your day off drilling equations into my head and putting up with my inability to grasp math."

"I really don't mind. I'm having fun," he assured, getting a quirked smile from her as she shifted closer. So close, in fact, that she was now tucked under his arm. Against his side. So close their legs were pressed together and if he'd tilted his head down a couple inches, he could kiss her.

He wanted to kiss her.

It was the first time since Lila that Spencer had felt that way about anyone. Really, he hadn't even felt as strongly about it with her as he did now with Aria. He really disliked physical affection. Hugging, holding hands, kissing… they'd never really interested him. Quite the opposite, actually. So the fact that he hadn't wanted her to pull her hand from his, that he'd been looking forward to the next hug he could share with her, the fact he wanted to close the distance between them and actually kiss her right now... it's how he knew what he felt for her went deeper than just a fleeting crush.

Maybe she felt it too. She had to feel it too. Because as he stared down at Aria and she stared up at him, he swore her eyes flicked to his lips. He swore she turned a little more, leaned a little closer, and still she hadn't made any move to lean away from the arm practically wrapped around her shoulders.

Spencer leaned forward. His heart was in his throat, pounding so hard he couldn't breathe, could barely swallow, could hardly focus. Aria tipped her head back a bit, the ghost of a smile still playing over the lips he kept glancing at.

Aria's phone began buzzing wildly and the two of them jolted back from one another so fast they both almost fell out of their chairs. Spencer caught her arm before he caught himself, barely keeping them seated. Aria smacked a button on her phone and shoved it away, letting out a shaky breath.

"School alarm," she murmured, a hand fluttering to her chest as she tried to calm herself. "I've got class soon."

"Right. Class," he confirmed, giving a sharp nod as he tried to calm himself as well. The two of them looked over to one another, and after holding their startled stares for another moment, they dissolved into giggles. She leaned into his hold again as she tried to quiet herself, and the harder she laughed, the harder Spencer laughed.

"We're in a library," she hissed to him, voice barely quiet enough to be considered a whisper. "You can't be this loud!"

"Me?" he laughed, voice even louder than hers. "You're the one being loud!"

"What?" she gasped, grin wide on her face and tears pricking the corners of her eyes. "I'm so not –"

"SHH!"

The order from behind them made them both jump again and whirl to stare up at the librarian as she shuffled past them, sending a scowl over her shoulder before she disappeared into the shelves. Spencer knew better than to look back at Aria, but he just couldn't help it.

The moment their eyes locked they started giggling again. In a rush, the two of them hurriedly shoved their books away, scooped up her notebook, and scrambled out of the chairs. The librarian poked her head back around the corner and without warning, Aria's fingers slid between his own. She held his hand tight as she scampered across the library, pulling him behind her.

As they burst outside onto the steps, their giggles turned into full-blown laughter. They rushed down to the sidewalk and stepped into the shade of a nearby tree. He made no effort to take his hand back, and she didn't seem to have any intention of letting go.

"I've never been shush'd in a library before, you know," he informed her, getting a devilish look that took over her stunning features.

"You could say I'm a bit of a rebel," she told him, sticking out her tongue to show him the piercing. Normally he didn't care for any kind of body modification, but he certainly liked the look of it more than he'd expected. Probably, he realized, because it was on her. She checked her phone and sighed. "A rebel that's gonna be late for class if she doesn't get going."

"Isn't that the point of a rebel?" he teased, raising a brow. She laughed and shrugged her shoulders. "Lucky for you, I'm a very good tutor and I won't allow you to skip out on your education."

Although he knew it was coming he was still sad to have her finally pull her hand from his. Before he could even miss the feel of her touch, though, she stepped up onto her tiptoes and looped her arms around his neck. He bent down and wrapped his own around her waist, hugging her tight to him.

His face buried into her curls and he took a deep breath, letting the soft scent of her rose perfume engulf him and warm him in a way only she could do. Without pulling away, she murmured,

"You're kind of scruffy, you know."

Not having expected that, he gave a laugh and – not letting go either – asked her,

"Is… is that good? I'm – I've never been called that before."

She giggled (somehow it was even better having her tucked against him like she was) and regrettably stepped back. Instead of fully pulling away though, she kept one of her arms around his neck to keep him bent down, and the other reached up to tuck his own curls behind his ear as she assured,

"I think it is." They both smiled at one another softly as they finally separated. He could hear her phone buzzing again and she sighed, stealing a peek at it before shoving it into her bag. "Alright. This rebel's gotta get going. Thank you so much for helping me. You're seriously my hero."

The two of them slowly started to back away from one another. Spencer gave her a toothy smile and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm glad I could help. If there's anything else you need to go over, just let me know. I'm sure I'll have a few books on whatever you need."

Aria giggled and nodded as she turned around. "I'm holding you to that, you know."

"I expect nothing less. Have fun in class. I'll see you tomorrow, Aria."

She looked back over her shoulder and, giving a quick wink that sent his heart and mind scattering in every direction, she teased,

"See you later, Scruffy."

Spencer was pretty sure he'd never smiled that wide before in his life.

Happy Monday! For those of you that celebrate it, I hope your Labor Day is going great! For those of you that don't, I hope you're having a good start to your week!

I've been super busy between the wedding and sight-seeing with my sister and her husband, so I haven't gotten the chance to finish the actual next chapter. Instead, I wanted to give y'all a cute little filler to make up for the chaos that was the last like six chapters. I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know if you thought this was cute, I'd like to do more cute little bits like this if there's interest!

Next week's chapter will also be a filler, but it'll be back on track with the storyline and I think you're really gonna like that one. In the meantime, I hope this week is excellent to you, and I can't wait to hear from you guys!