maniac. | spencer reid

| twelve |

GRACEN.
—

gracen knew she wouldn't be able to get that man out of her head. he was wearing a ski mask, so she couldn't see his face, but his eyes. bright blue and piercing.

she tried to instead focus on the man with his arms wrapped so tightly around her, as she cried into his dress shirt. it was dark purple and her tears stained it, making the color darker. spencer rocked her back and forth.

she hadn't seen spencer reid for a week and all those days she had longed for him. to have him right now with his arms around her, made her heart swell. but gracen was too terrified of the man in the flashback to cherish the feeling.

gracen felt another wave of sobs come out, and bit on her lip to suppress her scream. she instead focused on spencer. how he smelled—he smelled like fresh cotton and peppermint. a wave of calm ran through her veins. she felt his strong arms still gripped around her, one moving up to run through her hair. gracen remembered how he said he was a germaphobe—yet here he was, hugging her so tightly in his arms.

she hadn't even seen him yet. this whole time, her eyes had been closed. as gracen's breathing slowed down, her eyes fluttered open, tears still streaming down her cheeks. she had felt so afraid—knowing what would happen to her and the people around her from then on in the flashback.

gracen wanted to see spencer's face. she wanted to see what his expression was at the moment. the girl pulled back, blinking away black dots and squinting until his face became focused.

he was very calm, his large eyes swimming with intensity and genuine concern. spencer's lips were parted only slightly, but they were chapped and cracked. when spencer caught her staring at them, he subconsciously licked his lips. she noticed.

she noticed everything about him. how his wavy hair messily fell down his face, a piece probably blocking his view. how his cheeks were flushed, spots of red shown down his cheek and jaw.

a soft smile crept up spencer face and he pulled her in again, placing a delicate kiss on the top of her head that made her heart stop. she knew there was people watching, but she didn't care. nor did spencer. he blew her away. everything about spencer reid blew her away.

spencer looked down at her wrists, where they were red and blotchy from the her own scratches. he held them, rubbing his thumb over the indents. "you're kind of a fighter." he chuckled.

she smiled, and that's when she saw the dark red spot on his cheek bone and the scratches on his neck. gracen reached up, touching the spot on his face. spencer didn't wince or anything, although it looked very painful. "bruises fade after a week maximum. if you're worried that you ruined my pretty face—"

she lightly shoved him in the chest. "oh be quiet. does it hurt, spencer?"

"no." he gave her a grin. "did you know, there's not really such thing as pain because it's literally just our brain firing a teeny, tiny little neuron in reaction to a stimulus and we're registering it as this weird thing we call pain, but only if we make it so?"

gracen looked at him with confusion.

he let out a sigh. "what i'm trying to say is that it's not painful because it was you that did it."

heat crept up gracen's face, over some stupid fact, she thought. only spencer could flatter her that way.

she was amazed at how she was manically breaking down ten minutes ago and now she was laughing, like nothing even hurt her. that's what spencer could do to her. and she wouldn't want to have it any other way.