CM Fic: Building a Home (Chapte 4/8)
Title: Building a Home (Part 4/8)
Rating: T
Pairings: Reid/Hotch (established relationship)
Characters (entire story): Reid, Hotch, Jack, Jessica, Garcia, Morgan, Prentiss, Rossi, and JJ
Characters (this part): Hotch, Reid, and Jack
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.
Word Count: 3,910
Warning/A/N: Things get a little frisky in one section of this part, but I don’t think it veers out of the “T” category.
Summary (entire story): Aaron and Jack move in with Spencer when renovations drive them out of their new house. Will it be a disaster…or a beginning?
Summary (this chapter): The three of them have spent a month settling in and establishing new routines, and now Aaron has a few new favorite memories.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
“He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Aaron always knew Spencer was a gifted magician. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t still amazed when one month earlier his lover transformed a day full of home renovation dealings and chores into the best day of the week with just twelve magic words: “Is is okay if I take Jack to the park Saturday afternoon?”
The first time had completely knocked Aaron for a loop. He’d blinked in surprise and looked from Spencer, who’d squared his shoulders, to Jack, who’d been looking back with wide-eyed hopefulness. Wanting to encourage this shocking but happy turn of events without putting too much pressure on the two of them, Aaron had simply replied: “Sure; I need to stop by the house then anyway. Just be home by dinner - I’ll make something special.”
The second time had come as a pleasant surprise. Spencer hadn’t been able to ask the week following that first afternoon in the park thanks to a grueling case that had kept the team out of town until Sunday; and Aaron hadn’t yet realized Spencer and Jack’s outings were going to be more than just a one-time event. Aaron had recovered more quickly the second time he’d heard the question and again and again begged off on joining them, this time adding laundry to his list of reasons why. The third and final time had been a confirmation. Aaron had told Spencer he didn’t need to ask anymore, that he was happy to consider Saturday afternoons their designated time at the park.
Now it was Saturday and Aaron knew he was witnessing true magic. What once seemed impossible - Spencer and Jack forging a connection - was happening before his very eyes. Slowly but surely, the two of them were inching closer, doing more things together. With each chess lesson, board game, TV night, conversation, Aaron believed more and more that it was only a matter of time before the three of them became a…a family.
There was also an unexpected bonus to Saturday afternoons being Spencer-and-Jack time: after over a year of spending every moment either at work, with Jack, or with Spencer, Aaron finally got a little time to himself every week. Sure, he had a few chores to do, but those weren’t a big deal: he actually liked seeing how the renovations were taking shape, and he’d actually done most of the cooking since he and Jack and moved in anyway (to say Spencer wasn’t much of a cook was an almost laughable understatement). The laundry had been a chore he’d claimed a little later, but that was another story…
Aaron loved Spencer with all his heart, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to shake some sense into him sometimes - like now. They’d discussed this very reasonably shortly after he moved in, but now a week later he’d just uncovered irrefutable proof that everything they’d said had made no impact on his lover at all. Well, he wasn’t about to let this go without some sort of explanation.
Seizing his evidence, Aaron headed out into the living room. “We need to talk,” he declared, his tone no-no-nonsense with a hint of exasperation
Both Spencer and Jack blinked up at him. Aaron nodded to Spencer. “You,” he elaborated.
“Yes?” asked Spencer, befuddled, as he set his book aside.
“Can you explain this to me?” demanded Aaron, holding the damning evidence aloft.
“It’s my laundry bag?” Spencer more guessed than answered, his eyes wide.
Aaron gave it a little shake. “Yes, it’s your laundry bag - full of your dirty laundry, which I found hidden behind the hamper,” he gestured to the closet where they were keeping the laundry hamper brought over from Aaron’s house, “instead of in it. Spencer....”
“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t take care of all household chores together,” nodded Spencer. “I know - I agree!”
Aaron just held up the bag in response.
“Well, I was going to put it in there, but it would have overflowed,” pointed out Spencer.
Aaron stared at him. “That’s an easy problem to fix,” he pointed out. “We could always…do the laundry.”
“No!” Aaron’s eyebrows shot up and Jack was now staring in confusion, but Spencer was too aghast to notice. “I don’t want you to have to go to so much trouble because of me -”
“Spencer.” Aaron honestly didn’t know if he should be frustrated or concerned. “It’s not a huge inconvenience, really. In fact, we’ll take care of it right now.”
“Right now?” echoed Spencer as if this was the most unfathomable thing he’d ever heard.
“Yes,” said Aaron a bit more insistently than he probably needed to. He understood Spencer was almost compulsive about being as little trouble as possible, but he honestly didn’t know why he was making such a big deal out of this. Smiling encouragingly, he started back down the hall. “I’ll get the rest of the clothes and the supplies.”
“I’ll get our coats, I guess,” said Spencer uncertainly.
Aaron stopped and turned around slowly. “Why do we need our coats?”
“Well, it’s cold outside and the Laundromat is three blocks away, so -”
“I thought this building had a laundry room,” interrupted Aaron.
“It does,” hedged Spencer, crossing his arms - a protective gesture. “But I don’t use it.”
“Why? Is there something wrong with the machines?”
“No -they worked fine the last time I used them.”
“Is they cheaper to use at the Laundromat?”
“Ah - actually I think it costs a little more.”
“Then why?”
Embarrassed, Spencer scrunched his face. “The laundry room here is creepy,” he admitted reluctantly.
Aaron blinked a couple of times as he processed this information. “You mean every time you need to wash your clothes you drive to a more expensive facility because you find the closer and cheaper option creepy?” he summed up disbelievingly.
Spencer looked away. “Well, it’s not like I do my laundry that often,” he mumbled somewhat defensively.
Without another word, Aaron marched to the closet, dumped all their dirty clothes into the laundry basket, grabbed the detergent and fabric softener, and brought everything out into the living room. “Come on,” he announced in a tone that made it clear it would be useless to protest. “We’re all going to go do our laundry in the building we live in. Spencer, will we need a key to get in there?” A silent, wary nod. “Then grab it and let’s go.”
Watching Spencer creep down the stairs in the same manner he walked when they were clearing a suspect’s house, Aaron couldn’t help feeling a bit like a bully. ‘This is for his own good,’ he told himself firmly. Everybody had their irrational fears but this one was interfering with the way his lover lived his life. Hopefully after this, Spencer’s fear of the laundry room would be relegated to the same category as his dislike for the dark and Aaron’s own leeriness of spiders - something to be joked about and graciously indulged, not seen as a legitimate threat.
The last flight of stairs took them down to the basement level and abruptly dead-ended on a dented, misshapen door. Spencer turned back at his lover forlornly and Aaron just looked back at him encouragingly but firmly. Seeing his lover wasn’t going to change his mind, Spencer very slowly fumbled with the lock and pushed the door open.
The only light came from a tiny, dirt-encrusted window and a bare bulb hanging from the low ceiling, casting shadows that gave the large and empty room a stifling, suffocating aura. The walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling doors, all of which were severely warped. Some were padlocked; and all of these were bent out at their tops and bottoms, like people trapped inside had tried to break them down but couldn’t defeat the locks. The warping caused the unlocked doors to hang open just a crack, like someone was hiding inside, watching and waiting. To the left there were two openings that led into pitch-black voids.
The door suddenly slammed shut behind them. Aaron started and reflexively grabbed at Jack, who squeaked in tandem with Spencer’s gasp. “Sorry,” breathed out Spencer, flexing his fingers anxiously. “I - I forgot it does that.”
“What is this place?” asked Jack in a hushed voice.
“It’s the storage room,” explained Spencer quietly, as if not wanting to draw the attention of anyone else who might be in there. “The office assigns closets and issues locks to the tenants that want to rent one.”
“What about the unrented ones?” Aaron wanted to know, trying very hard not the stare at the barely-open door Spencer was standing right next to.
“They stay unlocked,” replied Spencer. “The landlord’s not too worried about it since only residents have keys to this room.”
This was the same landlord, Aaron presumed, who’d directed Spencer to the nearest hardware store when he’d requested an extra apartment key. There could be dozens, hundreds even, of keys floating around out there in God-knows-whose hands. And even if only tenants had them, it wasn’t like anyone of the residents really knew each other. It would be so easy for some twisted person to use this place for an ambush…
“The, ah, the machines are over here,” said Spencer. Aaron looked up, his eyes widening slightly when he saw his lover was sticking one of his arms into one of the black voids. “Sorry; the light is kind of hard to - here.”
“What’s in there?” asked Jack, peering into the other, larger black void. Aaron placed a hand on his back to make sure he didn’t go running off to explore it.
“I don’t know,” replied Spencer. “We don’t go back there.” He made a face and pushed the arm in another centimeter. “Sorry; the light is kind of hard to - there.”
Another bare bulb lit up to reveal a narrow alcove housing two washers encrusted with detergent and other unidentifiable substances, two dented dryers that looked like they’d been kicked repeatedly, and an algae-stained sink. It was only as long as it needed to be to accommodate the machines, leaving little room for anyone to maneuver. The narrow opening they were standing in now was the only way in or out and the thick cinderblock walls would muffle any noise, like someone sneaking up on anyone in there, a gunshot, a scream for help…
Suddenly a loud creak filled the air, accompanied by a cold gust of wind. A burst of light streamed in from the other side of the larger void for just a moment before vanishing. There was a door over there that led outside, Aaron realized as all three of them stood frozen, and someone had just come through it. No one could have missed the light in the laundry area, but whoever it was over there didn’t do or say anything to acknowledge their presence. What he did do remained a mystery, since all they heard was shuffling in the dark (‘Why aren’t they turning on a light?’ wondered Aaron, his unease growing exponentially. ‘What could they be doing in the dark?’). After a few increasingly tense moments the shuffling stopped and the creak, wind, and light came and went once more. Whoever it was had left the same way they’d come in.
The three of them stayed rooted to the spot. “Was that the boogeyman?” asked Jack fearfully.
“No, no,” soothed Spencer in a faint voice. “There’s no such thing as the boogeyman.”
“He didn’t use a key,” realized Aaron. He turned to Spencer. “I don’t remember hearing him use one when he came in and I know he didn’t when he left. Doesn’t that door have a lock?”
The blood drained from Spencer’s face. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve - I’ve never checked.”
He’d seen enough. “All right, everybody upstairs,” announced Aaron briskly. “Let’s go - now.”
The trip up the stairs took half as long as the trip down. Aaron fought the urge to secure the deadbolt and slide in the chain behind them once they were safely back in the apartment. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” he announced, dropping the laundry basket to the floor. “I have to check in at the house at least once a week, so I’ll just do our laundry there.”
“No, Aaron,” objected Spencer. “It would be unfair to make you do that all by yourself.”
“I want to do it,’ Aaron assured him emphatically.
Spencer still looked doubtful. “We should at least take turns,” he argued.
Swallowing his knee-jerk objection, Aaron tried to think logically. “But I have to go to the house anyway,” he reasoned. “And you can do your share in other ways, like sorting the clothes beforehand and putting them away afterward.” His face softened. “Just promise me you’ll stop going to the Laundromat, and that you’ll never go down there again - it’s unsafe and just...creepy.”
“I tried to tell you.”
Aaron pulled Spencer and Jack into his arms. “I’ll never doubt you again.”
*********************
Aaron was setting two neatly folded stacks of clothes on top of the dresser when Spencer’s blue pajamas sitting on the top of one caught his eye. A naughty smile tugging at his lips, he undid all the buttons before placing them on Spencer’s pillow. His eyes fell on his lover’s glasses on the nightstand next to it and Aaron couldn’t help running a finger over the top of them. He loved those things; he’d shown Spencer just how much the first time they’d made love post-move-in…
Ten days was a long time to go without sex when the most gorgeous person in the world was sleeping in the same bed.
True, for most of that time his lack of a sex life had been the least of Aaron’s concerns. He’d simply been too exhausted from moving in, watching his son and lover dance awkwardly around each other, and hoping it would stick when they finally made a connection. Most of that tension eased, however, when Spencer and Jack returned from the park Saturday afternoon still speaking and noticeably more relaxed in each other’s presence, and now he was free to focus on a very different frustration.
Aaron knew he couldn’t let this go on any longer after he realized he’d spent more time fantasizing about throwing Spencer onto the round table and taking him right there than listening at that morning’s team briefing. So that evening, after checking to make sure Jack was in bed and fast asleep, he strode purposefully to the bedroom, all the while going over exactly what he was going to say in his head.
Words failed him, though, when he opened the door and laid eyes on Spencer. His beautiful lover was stretched out on the bed, clad in those dark blue pajamas and horn-rimmed glasses and lost in a book. As he watched that long finger slide down page after page, all of the blood in his body went straight to his groin.
It was one of the sexiest things he’d ever seen.
‘Words were overrated,’ Aaron decided. He quietly shut the door behind him, so as not to disturb that perfect vision before him. Shucking his t-shirt and boxers on the way, he made his way to the bed and hopped in naked.
Spencer didn’t even look up but Aaron wasn’t deterred. He just grinned as he rolled to his side and snuggled up against his lover, wrapping one arm around the younger man’s waist as he began nuzzling his neck.
“Aaron,” said Spencer flatly, not looking up from his book. “What are you doing?”
“It’s really been that long?” joked Aaron.
Spencer finally glanced up and his eyes widened in surprise. “You’re naked!”
“That I am.”
“Why are you naked?”
“I think the real question is,” replied Aaron, sliding his hand to Spencer stomach and undoing the bottom button of his top, “why aren’t you?”
“Aaron,” protested Spencer with an alarmed, breathy laugh. “What are you doing?”
Aaron gently nipped at Spencer jaw as he caressed the exposed flesh of the young man’s stomach before undoing another button. “I’m ravishing you,” he explained as he bit down a little harder and then ran his tongue over the spot, savoring the gasp of pleasure Spencer tried to choke back.
He slid his hand up to attack the third button. Spencer held his book tight against his body, trying to impede his efforts. “Aaron…”
Aaron just slid the book out of his hands. Smiling triumphantly he tossed it to the floor and undid the next two buttons. “God, I missed touching you,” he moaned, sliding a hand across Spencer’s chest, brushing a thumb over a nipple to distract his lover as he undid the last of the buttons.
Spencer hissed and unconsciously arched into the touch. “Aaron, we can’t do this,” he protested meekly.
Aaron slid his hand lower until it vanished beneath Spencer’s waistband. “We seem to be doing this just fine,” he pointed out with as much innocence as anyone who was giving his boyfriend an experimental squeeze could muster.
Spencer bit his own fist to keep from keening. “So good,” he choked out as his legs instinctively fell apart.
“That’s right,” murmured Aaron lovingly, rolling between the parted legs, his hand still moving. “I’m going to make you feel so good.”
“Aaron,” Spencer’s voice broke as he lost himself in the waves of ecstasy. Only when Aaron began pulling his pants down did he snap back into reality. “Oh God, Aaron, we can’t. Jack’s in the other room!”
“He’s sound asleep,” promised Aaron.
“He could wake up!” fretted Spencer, staring at the door as if he expected Jack to burst in any second.
“He won’t,” Aaron assured him, leaning in to capture Spencer’s mouth in a deep kiss.
“You don’t know that for sure.”
“I know my son and I know what an REM sleep cycle looks like. And we’ll be quiet,” Aaron added. He moved his lips to his lover’s ear and rolled his hips in a way sure to drive Spencer blissfully crazy. “Please, Spencer; I need you. It’s been too long since we’ve lost ourselves in each other. Let me…be with me…”
“Yes,” moaned Spencer. “Oh, yes.” Aaron tried to kiss him again, but the young man grabbed his shoulders and stopped him from leaning back down. “But we have to hurry.”
Aaron couldn’t help smiling. “You always say such romantic things,” he teased.
Spencer shot him an utterly adorable kitten glower before rolling over to pull open the nightstand drawer. He shoved the supplies at Aaron and frantically ripped his shirt from his shoulders. “Hurry!”
CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM
“Oh God,” panted Aaron as he rolled off of Spencer, his body still buzzing with pure bliss
“Wow,” breathed Spencer. “That was…what got into you tonight?”
“It was completely your fault,” Aaron told him. “You were the one wearing those pajamas and sexy glasses. How was I supposed to resist?”
“My glasses are not sexy,” asserted Spencer wryly.
“Oh, I beg to differ.”
“And people think I’m weird,” scoffed Spencer, his voice free of malice.
“If not finding your glasses sexy is weird, I don’t want to be normal,” declared Aaron. He rolled his head to look at his lover. “You have to admit - that was good.”
“Yeah,” said Spencer, unable to keep from smiling any longer. “That was good.”
Aaron grinned at him. “Want to do it again sometime?”
“Definitely,” said Spencer. “We could come home during our lunch hour -”
“We could,” broke in Aaron, sending him a look that passed for pointed and incredulous in his current state. “And we can also do it during non-business hours, like a couple in a committed relationship rather than a businessman and his secretary sneaking in a nooner.”
Spencer licked his upper lip and glanced at the door. “Aaron, don’t get me wrong: this was incredible,” he said apologetically. “But we were beyond lucky Jack didn’t catch us. We can’t take that chance again.”
“Sweetheart,” said Aaron gently, cupping one of Spencer’s cheeks so the younger man couldn’t look away. “I take work home all the time, so of course I had to teach Jack to knock if my door is closed. He’s not going to forget that now.”
“I just don’t want to traumatize him, you know?”
He looked so sweet and worried that Aaron couldn’t resist kissing him yet again. “I know and I love you for it,” he said with a smile. “It’s one of many reasons, actually. But you know I wouldn’t do something if I thought it was going to traumatize Jack, right?”
Spencer nodded.
“Then trust me on this.”
Spencer stared at him for a moment; Aaron could almost see his mind processing this request. “Okay,” he finally said softly. He hesitated for just a second and then snuggled up against Aaron, resting his head on the other man’s chest. “And I love you too.”
*************************
“We’re home!”
Spencer’s voice snapped Aaron out of his reminiscences. “Good timing,” he said, going out to meet them. “I think the lasagna’s just about done. So, what did you guys do at the park?”
“We watched some of the games,” declared Jack excitedly. “Everyone plays so fast there, and Spencer says I could play that fast too one day. Then we went to the playground and Spencer pushed me on the swings and we played on the teeter-totter!”
“Oh, really?” asked Aaron, raising his eyebrows at Spencer. “Well, I want to hear all about it after you wash your hands.” He shook his head with a grin as Jack took off, and turned back to his boyfriend. “The teeter-totter, Spencer?”
“Oh yes,” said Spencer a touch self-deprecatingly with a quirk of his lips. “My back is still sore.”
“Poor thing,” said Aaron with a sympathetic purr. “I just might have to massage it later.”
“Like you have any other choice,” retorted Spencer playfully. “So how did it go at the house today? Is it almost ready?”
“Actually, no,” said Aaron, trying to figure out how much he could say without giving the whole thing away. “It’s going to be at least another month - maybe two.”
Spencer’s mouth dropped open. “That’s at least double the original estimate!” he cried, outraged. “That contractor is trying to rip you off.”
“No, he’s really not,” promised Aaron. “Something unexpected came up but he’s handling it quite well. It’ll be fine - you know, as long as you think you can put up with us for a little while longer.”
“I think I can tough it out,” Spencer told him, gracing him with a sweet smile and a quick kiss. “Now, I think I’d better set the table before that lasagna’s done.”
As he followed Spencer into the kitchen, Aaron was exceedingly proud of himself for keeping his excitement under wraps. It’s hard to get something past a profiler, but Spencer didn’t seem to suspect the truth: that the delay was because of a major project Aaron had basically dumped into his contractor’s lap just a few hours earlier. He’d thought about adding it to the list when he started the renovations, but decided against it because he wasn’t sure how well the three of them would mesh as a family. Now that things were progressing better than he’d ever thought possible he was eager to put the next step into place. He just hoped Spencer would be just as excited as he was now when he was finally able to reveal his surprise.
To be continued in PART 5