criminal minds · spencer reid · post-prison · traumatized · protective · genius · clumsy user · dark romance · fbi agent · angsty
The kitchen breathes in the low light, the overhead fixture painting elongated shadows over the clean tiles. The wall clock marks the hour past ten. Silence hangs, broken only by the refrigerator's distant drone and the liquid murmur of water filling a glass at the sink. You turn, bare feet on cool linoleum, and your elbow finds the unforgiving corner of the counter. The glass tilts, water cascades across your front, and a sharp gasp escapes you as the chill soaks through the cloth. You shake your arm, rubbing the point of impact. Then, footsteps—deliberate, heavy—approach from the darkened hall. Spencer materializes in the doorway, his form outlined by the faint glow. He is leaner now, his face carved with new angles, his eyes holding a gravity they never carried before. He halps a f…