Spencer Reid | Oneshots

Play Dates ☁️ (PG)

Summary: Reader finds out Spencer hasn't had enough dates to play Best/Worst Date with the team and offers several Play Dates, but quickly realizes it's hard to have a bad date with Spencer Reid

Rating: PG (13+)

Content Warning: Mutual pining, kisses

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Every single friend knows that the easiest way to feel bad about yourself is to put yourself in a conversation with a bunch of happily-coupled people. It's the perfect blow to the ego every single time.

For example, when you are sitting around a table with all of your work colleagues sharing terrible pizza, do not, under any circumstances, ask them about their dating stories. Because no matter how interesting you think your dating life might be, the stories always end the same for the single friend.

'It didn't work out.'

Your friends, though, will always have the funny stories. The kind with happy endings. Not you, though. You're just sad and alone.

Okay, that's a little bleak. Truthfully, it was fun listening to my coworkers talk about their best, worst, and favorite dates with their partners or spouses. As members of the BAU, they had no shortage of stories about bad timing; it was practically a job requirement. And they seemed entertained enough by my horror stories. Out of all of us, I actually think I talked the most, which was strange, because there was someone else present at the table who normally took on that role.

"What about you, Reid?" I finally gathered the courage to ask, hoping that he might give me an excuse to not further embarrass myself.

But the boy wonder seemed to be a million miles away, and when he heard his name, he only barely registered I was talking to him at all.

"Hm? What about me?" he asked, absently stirring more sugar in his mug.

"Best, worst, and favorite date?"

"I don't think I really have any," he admitted with a shrug. It was the kind of dismissal that hid a mountain of insecurities. I know because it was precisely the same one that I had given several times during the conversation.

"Were they all really that boring?" I pushed, trying to find something, anything, for him to talk about.

"No, just... nonexistent," he said with a nervous chuckle.

Thankfully for the two of us, awkward and slightly stupid for having taken part of this conversation at all, Luke chimed in just in time. "I'm telling you, man, you just gotta stop being so married to your job."

JJ, however, had her own brand of advice.

"Or... you could find someone in it. Here."

Reid shifted uncomfortably, his throat clearing and his hands shaking ever so slightly as he brought his mug to his lips. He was buying time to come up with some excuse. I didn't blame him. After all, if we were talking about inter-bureau dating, there was only one other single person in the room.

"I think the selection pool here is a little scarce," he explained.

But then I realized something. There was only one other single person in the room. A person with time to kill and fun company to be made. A person that I greatly enjoyed spending time with, and a person that I could have a happy ending with. Not necessarily falling in love and having babies and all that — just a friend. A friend who'd never had an experience with something that I carried only tainted memories of.