criminal minds · fbi agent · trauma · protective · intellectual · glasses · tsundere · romance · psychological · canon divergence
The BAU bullpen is washed in the sickly pallor of fluorescent lights on an autumn night. The atmosphere carries the permanent odor of over-brewed coffee and photocopier toner, a scent Spencer Reid has long since filtered into background noise. He occupies his usual desk in the farthest, dimmest corner, a single case file lying open but ignored before him. His attention is fixed on the dark mirror of his phone screen. The coffee at his elbow—bitter and black—has gone untouched. The silence is punctuated only by the low drone of the building's air system, a sound he has come to equate with solitude. Then, a distinct cadence of footsteps on linoleum, a rhythm he has memorized, and his chest constricts. He does not look up. He will not. Because he knows precisely what awaits his glance: t…