an old unfinished meet cute blurb because i wanted to update the cover for this book!!!!! ALSO just posted a new story with spencer x camgirl!reader (RUBY RED) so.. ya better go check it out
"Ugh!" You squealed and sighed in defeat when the papers you had been carrying tipped out of your hands and made their way all over the hallway floor.
You watched helplessly as they flew everywhere and you waited stupidly til they stopped moving before you knelt down to pick them up again. It'd been such a long night, frustrating and long, and this felt like the last straw.
As you knelt down you felt a presence next to you, already going to help you with your papers. "You okay?" The voice spoke out, but you replied before you looked up to him.
"Yes, perfectly, thank you. I don't need any help." You'd had such a harsh day that the bitter reaction came to you before you could think.
When your head tilted up, your eyes met those of a sheepish brown-haired boy you'd seen around the offices a few times- not another short-tempered, narcissistic FBI agent like you'd expect.
You recoiled instantly, your whole demeanour softening- but not before you caught the way he gulped as he watched you. "Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I've had the worst day-"
"Don't worry about it." He stopped you and smiled slightly, before continuing to help you pick up the papers. You continued anyway, the need to rant overtaking you before you could help it.
"I've had all these fancy FBI agents bossing me about all day long, and now they've got me here in the middle of the night and they're still shouting at me even though I don't even actually work here-" You paused when he passed you the small pile of papers he had called collected. "Sorry, again."
You bit down on your lip awkwardly, trying not to show the obvious signs of stress and sleep deprivation since the man across from you had helped you unprompted. Plus he was rather cute.
"It's okay. This place stresses me out sometimes too." He gave you an easy look as you both stood back up, and you visibly relaxed more in front of him. "You're not an agent?"
"Um no, my mom is- deputy director. I basically just run around doing errands for her. She started bringing me in so that I would 'learn something'." You rolled your eyes at the words and the boy across from you smiled easily.
"So have you? Learned something, I mean." The task you had been rushing off to seemed to slip your eyes as you conversed with the stranger, his presence was so much more calming than anything else since you'd been there.
"Only that I never want to work here, much to my mother's chagrin." You grinned, trying to adjust the piled of paper in your hands so that you could stand more comfortably.
"Here, let me help." He reached out to take some of what you carried without question, making the load in your hands far easier. You muttered a thanks to him and tried to ignore the blush you felt rising to your cheeks- you were tired and slightly socially-deprived, but you didn't want to seem too much like a bumbling idiot.
"So what do you get out of it, then? I can't imagine getting bossed around by people in power suits at 3:30am is at the top of anyone's to-do list." You started to walk in the direction you had been heading in the first place, now that he seemed willing to help you out. You wondered if he had been leaving when you bumped into him, but he seemed happy enough to help you anyway.
"Oh, I get to read some of these case files-" You paused when you realised what you'd said. "Wait- please don't tell anyone I said that! I don't know if my mom can get into trouble for it."
He shook his head. "Of course not."
"You see- I'm doing a degree in criminal psychology and some of the case files are really helpful, or just really interesting." He smiled gently at you, listening to your words.
"Got any big plans for after college? If the FBI isn't your thing, I mean." Spencer didn't often chat with people who weren't either his colleagues or involved in a case (though speaking to you wasn't much of a stretch), so it felt rather nice to listen to something a bit different.
Plus you didn't seem to be pressing him with questions about himself, so he hadn't had the opportunity to spill out words that would ruin the conversation.
"Yeah, kind of. I think I wanna work with the guys after they've been incarcerated. Originally I wanted to work on prisoner reform, but after seeing some of these cases I think I'm losing hope that it's possible." You grimaced slightly but the boy next to you laughed easily and nodded his head.
"I agree, some of them are awful- I work in the BAU and I think that some of the people we track down are too far gone." You nodded with him, listening to him pleasantly.
"Yeah, you're Spencer Reid, right? I've read a lot of your cases." Smiling you looked to him, seeing a blush creep up on his face.
"Yeah, that's me." He hadn't realised you knew who he was, making the back of his throat itch slightly in his embarrassment. He turned his head away from you, attempting to ignore the butterflies he felt knowing you knew him.
"Actually, prison sentence lengths have increased over the past 3 decades, but reoffending rates have stayed exactly the same." He offered up stupidly, feeling awkward at his sudden nerves.
"All the more reason to try to help them. Maybe not murderers, though." You said lightly, placing your files down finally. He nodded with a smile, playing the pile he had just next to yours.
He stood next to you, smiling for a moment, unsure if he should leave you to it. But your body was facing him, far more engaged than he expected to be. He waited for you to speak.
"Thank you for helping me, Dr. Reid." You said sweetly, awkwardly fiddling with the badge clipped to your blazer. He was cute enough that you didn't know what to say. "I, um, think I need to get back and finish off."
"That's fine." He said after a second and shrugged. "I'll see you around."
"Maybe I can come and find you if I get bored of the powerheads? You can say you needed me to
run an errand for you." You grinned, and after a second he caught on- blushing profusely.
"U-um, yeah, that'd be nice." He said with his shyest smile, making your heart flutter softly. Thank god he hadn't rejected you, you'd feel all the worse reading through his case files.
After a moment you both stumbled out of the storage closet, bashful as you tried to remember where you were heading.
You offered one last smile before spinning away, secretly grinning like a child.
