Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

Care

"-and then you just kept yelling 'steal the snacks! Steal the booze!' Not a very subtle escape" Morgan couldn't contain his laughter as he and Darling sat in his car outside of the 3rd fast food restaurant they had gone to after the others were all closed, both still in their formal outfits from the high school reunion.

"I'm not the one who ran into the punch bowl on the way out of there, that's the epitome of not subtle" Darling chuckled at him, taking a bite out of her burger and narrowly avoiding a dollop of ketchup falling out of it, falling onto her lip instead.

"I've never seen someone so savagely eat a burger before" Morgan teased, grabbing a napkin and wiping her lip for her- something they would have done without thought before but now after not being around each other for a while it felt strange for some reason he couldn't explain.

"Uh, sorry, I-" he didn't know why he apologised but she just chuckled at his non-characteristic awkwardness.

"Did you want the rest of it? I'm full" she offered the burger to him, taking the napkin and finishing wiping her mouth.

"You sure you're full? You've barely eaten like half of it" Morgan raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah I'm good" she smiled, placing the burger back into the wrapper in the cupholder in-between them, Morgan going to prompt her more about not finishing her food but she continued talking, "how'd you enjoy the reunion then? Was it everything you dreamed of?"

"Oh yeah, I've spent the last 5 years dreaming of the moment I got to return to that sweat filled gymnasium" he joked.

"I'm sure you did Mr bigshot" she teased, taking a sip of her drink.

"You seem to forget that I spent a lot of high school with you so if I was Mr bigshot then you must be Miss bigshot too."

"Just because I was associated with you doesn't mean I got your magical popular glitter" she laughed, "not all of us were blessed with shining, shimmering, glamorous high school years."

"My high school experience wasn't that great Darl" Morgan looked down at her as she laughed.

"Oh yeah sure, I bet it was so hard being Mr hot popular sporty guy who everyone adored-"

"It was."

"Oh come on Derek-"

"I'm serious- it was a lot of pressure, especially after what I went through in middle school" he shook his head and accidentally blurted out with a rise to his voice that startled them both.

The silence stretched for a moment, Morgan going to apologise for raising his voice and unsure of his sudden defensive attitude but she spoke first with a small nod of understanding despite not knowing what he meant.

"When you say what you went through in middle school, you don't just mean with what happened to your dad, do you?"

Morgan looked at his hands that sat on his thighs and sighed as he ever so slightly shook his head.

"There's something you haven't told me, isn't there?" Darling's voice was soft, gently prompting enough for him to nod in response, not giving any more information, unsure why couldn't but not letting himself talk about it even after years had passed.

"Okay... that's okay" Darling smiled at him, her tone surprisingly light and playful, "there's things I haven't told you."

Morgan chuckled with confusion slightly at her light tone, turning to her and spotting her understanding and knowing smile that told him she wasn't going to prompt him if he didn't want her to "oh yeah?"