Multifandom Imagines (and a Headcanon set here and there)

Oh Dear Me - Horatio Caine x Reader

Requested by GrindelwaldSparrow

Another day, another shift to spend staring at your boss, whom you had feelings for, and admire him from afar. You were as close to him as any other member on the team could be, save for his brother of course.

But that was just it - you were only as close to him as anybody else, and nothing more. You wanted more. You also were unsure whether Horatio wanted the same...that alone was enough to stall you from expressing your feelings to him. For the time being, your emotions manifested themselves by you being shy and bashful whenever you were around him. Even when he was not present, he still managed to distract you since you found yourself constantly daydreaming about him - a lot of your team including him have had to call your attention back to the case you were working on. The worst of it was when you had to report to him about whatever results you had come back with. You would end up stuttering and avoiding eye contact, mumbling out your words and fumbling with the case file like a bumbling fool, your hands shaking as you finally gave it to him and tried to avoid touching his hand with your own - the epitome of incompetence. Horatio being the good boss he is, he would never reprimand you, and instead always ask what the matter was. But of course, you could not tell him the truth. After he had gently and patiently coaxed the full report from you, you would rush to make your exit, frailly telling him that you were okay and walk quickly away before you could embarrass yourself any further.

In fact, you were currently poring over the blood results in your hands, hesitating along the corridor to his office, taking as small and slow steps as possible, pretending to be so absorbed in your reading that you could not concentrate on walking when in reality, almost nothing was going into your brain. ': : matching alleles...positive for #...' The words swam before your eyes, avoiding capture and intake. You shook your head harshly to clear it and finally gleaned from the sheet all the important things you had to tell Horatio; the rest he could read for himself, if he wanted the full length of the details.

You took a deep breath and closed the file, leaving your index finger inside to mark the page. With the brown folder dangling from your arm at your side, you power walked to H' office. You knocked on the glass with your free hand, and poked your head inside. Horatio looked up from where he was sat bent over his writing, halting the movement of the pen in his hand. "(Y/n)," he acknowledged, smiling in greeting, "come in." You felt your face start to turn pink, so you turned your head away, scoffing at yourself. His eyebrows furrowed in concern as he stood up and walked around his desk, reaching his hand out and holding your wrist and elbow on the same arm. "Come now..." he coaxed, gently pulling you further into the office, "you're doing better than you have been these past few months."

"I am?" you shot out, shocked, your head whipping around to face him. Huh. You had not even noticed.

"Yes," he chuckled, rolling his eyes in fond annoyance. "You're doing better."

At his laugh, again, you felt your face heat up and your heartbeat increase. Turning your face away to hide its pinkness, you huffed out a stutter, "D-don't...don't do that..." And yet you did not pull your arm out of his grasp, reluctant to lose his touch. Perhaps it was because your long sleeves covered any skin you had; if he had been holding your hand, you would have certainly jerked it away.

"Don't do what?" he asked, his voice filled with concern, doing his cute head tilt and dropping the hand on your wrist to your hand - that was when you withdrew the limb faster than if you were experiencing recoil from a 44 Magnum (A/N: I will always use that gun. Always.).

"N-nothing! F-forget it!" you said frantically, taking a huge step backwards and stretching your arms out in front of you, palms facing him (the one hand holding the file securely), and you turned your head to the side and downwards.

Horatio frowned, and, before you could react, took a decisive step towards you and pulled you into a tight embrace. You froze up in shock, and only barely registered his hand stroking your back. "(Y/n)..." he said, trying to get your attention; hewas not successful. "(Y/n)," he tried again, more firmly this time, even putting his hands on your shoulders to push you back a bit and look directly into your eyes with his steely blue ones. You snapped out of your shock only to be put into a daze, but an attentive one. Well, you could at least register what H was saying now, even though his words were quite muffled. Anyhow, this was better than previously, when what he said was to you as water on a dry leaf. You did not say anything, but you gave him a 'continue' look. "What's going on?" he asked, his voice thickening and becoming heavier with worry.

At that, you looked away again, this time in shame. You could not tell him. You could not. "(Y/n)..." he sighed softly, gently shaking your shoulders. "Look at me," he coaxed, "Look at me." You slowly turned your head to face him, unable to resist that gentle, caring voice and kind touch. His eyes, when you looked into them, were just as gentle, caring and kind. His lips parted slightly as he breathed in through his mouth, and exhaled from it, his chest heaving accordingly. Funny how the distance between you two, or lack thereof, made this movement so much more noticeable. "(Y/n)..." he said, still softly. An unintelligible sound came from him, then he closed his mouth altogether, at a loss for what to say. You just stared at each other for a few moments, which were oddly comfortable.

"JUST KISS ALREADY!!" came Raymond's voice from the door. The pair of you jumped back in shock, your heads whipping around to face the younger Caine. He glared at his brother and, after giving a decisive nod of the head with an angry 'harrumph', he stormed off.

You giggled and rested your hands on H' shoulders, your head hanging down, so you needed the physical support. Horatio was just laughing off his shock as he put his hands over yours. "I guess he doesn't like that you used to love his wife," you chuckled when you had calmed down a little, looking up to face him.

"Hm, that's true," he hummed plainly, squeezing your hands gently.  When you realized the contact you shared, your face heated up, and you tried to snap your head away, but Horatio cupped your cheek with one hand and brought your face closer to his and pressed his lips to yours, his eyes shut.  His other hand moved over your shoulder to your upper back and pushed you close.  Your immediate reaction was to close your eyes, and of course your face heated up even more as you squeaked.  But, despite your nerves, your hands slid down to his chest and you reciprocated his kiss as soon as you felt his lips on yours - because it felt so natural, even though you had never done this before.  Maybe it was because of how genuine and raw your feelings were for each other, or maybe it was because of the sheer amount of time that the two of you had been pining for each other, and longing for the closer contact.  Whatever it was, it felt natural, it felt safe.  It felt right.  A few seconds into the kiss, you got more comfortable and dropped your hands to wrap around his waist.

After those savoury moments, the two of you pulled back slightly to breathe, still keeping your eyes closed.  You leant your foreheads against each other and chuckled breathily.  "So, um...will you go out with me?"  Horatio asked nervously, his eyes opening.

Since you could feel his eyes boring into yours, you opened your own.  You giggled, "What, you don't think I won't after that?"

Horatio let out a relieved chuckle and pulled you in for a kiss once more.