𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐲. spencer reid

00. admirer from afar

prologue
[SPENCER REID]

WHEN I FIRST MET HER, I WAS
just the tiniest bit intimidated. No—scratch that, I was downright terrified. I had the whole Spencer Reid Meeting a Pretty Girl look on my face, sweaty hands and all. A sickening yet arousing feeling bubbled inside of my stomach, like some strange kind of virus was eating up my intestines. I think Garcia called it "butterflies" one time, which—in my opinion—is incredibly disturbing because the last thing I wanted to feel when looking at a beautiful woman, were insects crawling inside of me.

But now that I've seen her, I realized that getting butterflies isn't as crazy as our imaginative tech analyst made it out to be. It was confusing, but exciting. Really warm and comforting but at the same time cold enough to keep me on my toes. Light and dark, like her.

It wasn't just the contrast between her skin tone and hair, but something else underneath the surface. Her outfit was clean and without a single wrinkle, but the bangs on her forehead sat in an unkempt and careless manner. What stood out to me most were her large, bug-like eyes that held so much confidence. I could tell that she was looking down on my teammates as they introduced themselves to her, regardless of the sweet smile on her face.

Overconfidence, arrogance, haughtiness—these traits never have once been attractive to me. Her disdainful looks towards my friends should've been the first red flag for me.

But god, when she looked at me...my IQ shrunk down just a tiny bit. To be fair, I was shocked that she even looked my way. I'd expected her to just ignore me, because...well, I was me. But she did. Her eyes found me immediately, like she knew where I'd been the whole time. I couldn't help but stare back with curiosity, my heart practically exploding with excitement.

When she made her way over to me, I immediately slid off of my desk, feeling like if I had stayed sitting that it'd be disrespectful. The beautiful woman flashed me a friendly smile, showing her perfectly straight teeth. Everything about her was intoxicating, from the sound of her voice to the way she carried herself on her shoulders. I'd expected to feel slightly degraded and judged based on watching her interact with my coworkers, but I didn't. She looked at me with a genuine smile, eyes all sparkly and stuff. It...was kinda strange, but of course I didn't complain one bit.

My heart hammered inside of my chest as she extended her hand towards me in such an insistent manner that I didn't dare deny it. Quickly wiping my hand on my thigh, I grabbed hers, blushing when she shook it firmly like I had expected.

"April Hendrix. Special Agent."

Her introduction was simple and short—the absolute bare minimum—but the way she had said it made me think that it wasn't laziness, it was just her getting straight to the point.

Meanwhile I stared at our connected hands, trying to imagine the copious amounts of bacteria and microorganisms crawling from hers to mine. But...I couldn't even focus on that. I could only focus on her neatly trimmed fingernails and the soft and warm feeling of her hand in mine. I noticed how she didn't have a ring on her finger—I wasn't sure why that was one of the more important curiosities my mind travelled to, but it did.

Her bright expression was comforting enough to ease my nerves in the slightest bit. I found my own lips stretching into a smile, and secretly hoped that the team wasn't watching us and (more importantly) how happy this small interaction was making me.