RSVP - Spencer Reid x Reader

Rumours Through the Grapevine - Part Three

Our 'Halloweeny' activity, it turned out, was carving the pumpkins I forgot that I needed for a display at work, due to go in the day after.

Luckily, Spencer was pretty chilled about my sudden realisation as we wandered around town and wasted time together, he even laughed at my forgetfulness, spouted off some fact about it and agreed to help me.

Little did I know that he'd critique my skills.

"You're so bad at this."

I lifted up my head with a gasp, scoop mid-way through scraping at the inside of my pumpkin.

"Excuse me?"

Spencer looked up from his own pumpkin with a boyish grin, still laughing at me.

"I said you're bad at this."

With a huff, I looked down at the wonky face I had carved and pouted.

"I'm not bad, just a little cack-handed but that's only because my damn carving saw snapped," I shrugged before turning my attention back to him, "besides, you're one to talk, Mr. I'll-Paint-the-Face-On."

He looked down at the pumpkin resting in front of his crossed legs, paintbrush hovering over it with a large drop threatening to plop onto the newspaper.

"It's easier to correct mistakes this way."

"It's cheating."

"It's a perfectly sensible way to keep the pumpkin preserved if it's going into a store window for a week, rather than carving it and putting it under the heavy lights your store has."

I stared at him and huffed.

"Screw you, Spencer Reid."

"It's Dr. Spencer Reid, thank you."

He was only greeted by a middle finger and a scorned look, which resulted in him laughing and going back to his pumpkin painting.

As he continues painting on the details of whatever face he was hiding from me, I couldn't help but find my attention lingering on him.

For once he seemed almost happy and carefree, less haunted than I'd noticed before.

It wouldn't last, it didn't take a genius to see that, but in that moment it was wonderful.

Hunching uncomfortably over my pumpkin, I continue to try and save its face while ignoring the growing pain in my fingertips at using a broken saw.

I squeaked yelp from Spencer made me jump, causing me to misdirect a cut in my pumpkin and ruin his eye more than it already was as my head snapped towards him to see what was wrong.

The answer was nothing.

At least nothing beyond the splodge of paint that he'd managed to get over his shirt.

"Really?" I laughed, shaking my head, "you messy pup."

"I didn't do it on purpose," he protested, his voice going higher than usual.

His helpless puppy expression only made me laugh harder and nearly slip as I pushed myself up off of the floor.

"Give me your shirt, I can wash it."

"Right here?"

"Yes, before it has a chance to start drying."

I smiled at him, holding my hand out to indicate for Spencer to pass his shirt over.

"O-Oh, yeah...um," his tongue flicked over his lips quickly, "do you mind looking away?"

"I'll do you one better, I'll grab a shirt for you to borrow."

Turning away, I briskly walk to my bedroom and hear Spencer shuffling around behind me, making me picture him trying to awkwardly take off his shirt without catching any more paint on himself.

I doubt it was actually that complicated but it was a strangely cute image and it made me smile.

Luckily, I had a variety of both masculine and feminine clothes in varying sizes and Spencer was such a lithe man that it wouldn't be hard to find something within my own drawers, there were definitely t-shirts that would fit him perfectly well.

Such as the glow-in-the-dark skeleton one I pulled out from the top of the pile.

A personal favourite of mine.

By the time I had returned he had set the dirtied shirt carefully out on the floor, being sure not to drop any paint on my carpet and seemed to have gotten over his moment of shyness, possibly realising that I'd end up seeing him one way or another to give him the clean one.

Either way I was greeted by a shirtless Spencer who looked a little uncomfortable.

"I told you we should have gone costume shopping," I snickered, "then you'd be changed already."

He only rolled his eyes at me but still smiled all the same.

"Hey," I added excitedly, holding the shirt out to him, "seeing as we're going to be best buds, maybe one year we can do a pairing costume, like Jack and Zero."

"Zero?" He replied with an amused laugh while taking the offered clothes, "not Sally?"

"Hell no, Zero is my boy," I grinned at him, pausing for a moment before gasping so loudly I almost choked on my own saliva, "or Oogie Boogie!"

"You're really excited about that," he smiled.

"You have no idea."

"I think I might, first impressions give me the idea that you're a little obsessed with him."

"Funny you should say that, my friend says I have Zero on the brain," I snickered, "even says I'll end up getting a Zero tattoo eventually."

"Would you?"

"I doubt it, my pain threshold isn't terrible but I'd rather not inflict pain upon myself if I can help it, so in short...I'm a chicken."

I stepped passed him and grabbed his shirt from where he'd laid it out, then hopped back to my kitchen to get the paint seen to before it dried too much.

"What about with horror movies?" He called to me.

"Huh?" I yelled back dumbly.

"Are you chicken with horror movies?" He asked again, this time stepping into the kitchen with his drying pumpkin held out at arm's length.

It was strange seeing him in a casual t-shirt, as opposed to some form of button up.

A good strange, it suited him in a way I would never have thought to have imagined.

Glancing at the thing in his hands, I nudged my head towards an empty part of the counter where he could set it down and then shrugged.

"Not really, I hate jumpscares but I'm fine with horror otherwise."

"Then how about we lean into our theme and go for a pure Halloween movie?"

"I'm down for that," I nodded, "what are you thinking?"

"Ever heard of When Good Ghouls Go Bad?"

I tilted my head a little and frowned in thought before shaking my head.

"I have not."

"Great," he said as he quickly moved back out of the room, "then give me about forty minutes, I need to grab some things."

A little splutter of surprise left me and I had ever intention of asking where he was going, but before my brain kicked fully into gear the door had already clicked shut and Spencer was already gone, leaving me to clean his shirt while his pumpkin stared on.

"Look, I'm not a profiler and I'm not a genius, I can't even play chess, but I'm a normal person who can kind of get other people."

Spencer looked at me with the most sincere expression I'd seen anyone have and smiled, nodding slowly.

"Only sometimes though," I added with a soft laugh, picking up my warm mug, "some people are just...noooo."