Fic: The Thing About Ties (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan, Hotch / Chad)
Title: The Thing About Ties
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc
Feedback: Always Welcome.
Criminal Minds Main List
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Monday, 08:02 AM
BAU, Quantico
Morgan shot Prentiss an anticipating glare and continued sipping his coffee. Prentiss poured herself some more and glared right back at him.
Between them, Reid glared at both of them quite equally, and looked like a monk in the middle of a leather bar.
“You wanna up the ante?” Morgan challenged. “Double the stake?”
“I don’t want to take advantage of you.” Prentiss responded. “Don’t you need your ten bucks to pay your psychiatrist for working on your delusions?”
“You mean you don’t wanna pay when you loose. Just admit it.”
“Can’t you just wait until we see I was right?”
“You mean wait until you can pay Clooney’s new winter gear?”
“Is that what you’re wearing? I thought you looked kinda shabby…”
“Hey! I resent that remark!”
“And I resent everything that comes out of your mouth.”
“And I resent being in the middle of this.” Reid groaned and slammed his empty mug against the tabletop. “You two don’t need a mediator, you need a referee.”
“You can be that too, but we need you to announce the winner.” Morgan gave him his best smile, which didn’t seem to have its usual effect. “You’re the only one who can remember if you’ve seen it before.”
“And you can’t say you’re not a little bit curious.” Prentiss added.
“I’m curious about a lot of things. Things that include my work or my personal interests, but my boss’s clothing choices are not on my list of interests.”
“You’re good with patterns. He used to recycle the same old ties week after week and month after month. Now he’s wearing more colours, he’s getting new ties-”
“Mostly silk.” Morgan interrupted and received a bizarre glare from Prentiss. “What?”
“Nothing, I’ve just never heard you sound so gay before.”
“Not even when you overheard me talking about how Pretty Boy and I-”
“Not even then.”
“What did she overhear?” Reid asked. “And why didn’t you tell me about it?”
“Nothing big, just how our neighbour’s dog attacked me when we were getting jiggy in the backseat of my car.”
“That was ages ago.”
“But it’s a great story. At least now when the scars have faded.”
“What does that have to do with Hotch`s clothes?”
“There’s money at stake.”
“So?”
“What do you mean so? A man hits a certain age and starts renewing his wardrobe, and keeps bringing in new ties all the time… What happened with the old ones? Did the old man`s crisis hit early? Is he trying to keep up with a younger man-”
“And are you trying to imitate a gossip magazine?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s what you sounded like. I just bought myself a new tie couple weeks ago and you haven’t even said anything about it.”
“I was trying to be nice, baby. It’s ugly.”
“That’s really not the best way to make a good impression on the referee.”
“Great, then you’ll agree with me.” Prentiss beamed. “I’m guessing an old tie. More specifically, that blue dress shirt he got for Christmas and the baby blue tie. He’s been wearing that a lot, so it’s one of his favourites, and when we got back last week, he mentioned that he needed to do a lot of laundry. That shirt was in his go-bag. He never wears that shirt with a different tie, so it’s obvious he would wear the baby blue one.”
“Couple years ago I would have agreed, but now I gotta say he’ll have a new tie. Again.” Morgan nodded. “I’d say he’ll have brand new tie and that pink dress shirt Chad bought for him from Cleveland.”
Both Reid and Prentiss shot him an odd look.
“Pink shirt and a tie?” Reid repeated. “That would be like… well… you.”
“What’s wrong with my style?”
“Nothing… on you. Actually, I don’t remember you wearing a tie for a while now.”
“You wear them all the time, I need to compensate.”
“But the pink shirt would be exactly your style, but maybe not Hotch`s.”
“Are you trying to say something?”
“No, just commenting. I know for a fact that he wears that shirt only when Chad picks up his clothes for him, so it’s probably not adequate reflection of his own taste.”
“Hotch lets him select his clothes?” Morgan couldn’t quite keep the shock off his face. “I guess I should have seen the signs. Anyway, as the referee you`ll handle the stakes.” He shoved a ten dollar bill to Reid`s breast pocket and Prentiss did the same.
“He’s coming.” Prentiss hushed and all three turned to look at the man, who walked in reading a case file.
“Morning.” Hotch nodded and headed to his office.
“Well?” Morgan demanded.
“And remember: The referee is supposed to be unbiased.” Prentiss reminded. “We both got the shirt wrong, but the bet was about the tie. Old or new?”
“New tie.” Reid confirmed. “So Morgan won.”
“I’ll get my money from you later.” Morgan smirked. “When we’re home.”
“I can give them to you now-
“I wanna try the strip search method. Make sure you hide them well.”
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Twelve hours earlier.
“We have to stop doing that…” Hotch rolled around to lay on his front, his head hanging over the edge of the bed. He eyed the remains of shirt with a forlorn look on his face. “That was my favourite shirt.”
“I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow…” Chad grinned and chuckled lowly. “Or maybe I’ll get you a full dozen of those, so I can still rip them off you when I feel like it.”
“You feel like it pretty often, I’ve had to buy new shirts at least once a month.”
“That`s your own fault. If you don’t get them off soon enough, I’ll give you a helping hand… and you look way too hot all buttoned up.”
“And another thing…” Hotch rolled back and rested his head on the man’s chest. “I’m running out of ties.”
“You got a whole bunch of them!”
“And I can’t use any of them when I go to the office. Subconscious association is something that doesn’t fit in the middle of a case.” Hotch`s let his hand slide up Chad’s chest, following the black lines of the tattoos on his shoulder and up his arm. He run his fingers across the silk tie, that was wrapped around the wrist, tying it to the headboard. “We could get some kind of a soft rope or-”
“Nope.” Chad grinned and gave his restraints a playful little tug. “I like the thought of you walking into the bullpen wearing the same tie.” He lifted his head from the pillow to press a quick kiss on Hotch`s lips. “No one knows, except you and me.”
“As long as I can keep my imagination under control…” Hotch caressed the silk under his fingertips. The pale blue tie seemed even paler next to the dark skin. “People keep talking and I can’t focus.”
“I have an idea for that…” Chad commented with a wide grin on his face. “Set up a yard sale, ties for all occasions. You’ll get some closet space for new ones.”