Work Text:
Spencer really wasn’t looking forward to going in to work today. He knew that as soon as he entered the office he would get profiled by his coworkers, because no one on his team listened to the no-profiling-teammates rule, including himself. Besides, it doesn’t take a profiler to see the hickeys on Spencer’s neck.
Spencer rubbed at his neck and tried not to think about how those hickeys got there. His first date with Charlie had gone better than expected, and every time he thought about what they did after their dinner date (and in the shower after that) Spencer got all red in the face and flustered, but also giddy like a school girl, and honestly it was embarrassing.
Morgan was going to put him through hell.
But the team already knew about Charlie, and any attempt to cover up the marks on his neck have been massive failures, so he was just going to have to own it and hope his long hair would keep it from being too obvious. Charlie had already apologized profusely for leaving marks in the first place, and Spencer was trying really hard to convince him it wasn’t a big deal.
As Spencer walked into the bullpen multiple pairs of eyes landed on him but he swiftly ignored them, keeping his head down and heading to his desk, hopefully he can reach it before—
“Pretty boy! Late night?”
—Jesus Christ.
So maybe it was a big deal.
Spencer ignored Morgan and reached his desk, checking to see that there wasn’t anything he needed to immediately address and sat down, fully intending to get to work and stay on task. He loved Morgan and the team, he really did, but moments like this made him glad he grew up as an only child.
Morgan quickly became a shadow over his desk. “It looks like you’ve been getting busy… did you get attacked by a vacuum?” Spencer could hear the grin on Morgan’s face. Spencer rolled his eyes internally. It wasn’t that bad.
"No, I did not get attacked by a vacuum cleaner. Statistically improbable.” Spencer pointedly did not look up at Morgan. Best to just let Derek get it out of his system.
"Uh huh. Where’d these come from then?” Morgan reached over and Spencer was unsuccessful in moving away before Derek flicked his hair aside, revealing the marks on his neck. “Would this have anything to do with the Gay Bar Guy?”
"His name is Charlie, and this is work place harassment—“
“Gay Bar Guy? What about Gay Bar Guy?” Oh no. Prentiss’ interest was officially piqued, this was no good. Emily leaned over the cubicle divider to get a better look at Reid.
“Nothing, nothing about Gay—“ Goddamnit “—Charlie, his name is Charlie, and there are more important things—“ Spencer started, but was quickly interrupted. Again.
“Ooooooh, did you guys finally go on a date? Where did you go? Did he pay for the bill? He better have paid for the bill.” Emily immediately started asking questions, standing up and leaning over the partitions between their desks, and Spencer groaned, putting his head in his hands.
“Yes, we went on a date, we went to a restaurant, yes he paid for it, stop asking me questions.” Spencer said, hoping that if he just told them what they wanted to know they’d leave him alone.
Part of him wanted to tell them all about it though. Spencer didn’t really have any friends, at least not ones that he could safely tell about a date that he went on with another man. It would be nice to tell them about all the cute things that Charlie keeps sending him, or about how pretty Charlie was. But at the same time he didn’t want to tell them about Charlie because he was so giddy about the entire thing that he was afraid that he’d make a fool of himself just talking about him. Plus, him and Charlie had only been on one date, so what if everything went horribly wrong and Charlie hated him forever and then they ended whatever it was they had going on and then the team would laugh at him for years and years—
Someone tapped him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his thoughts, and he sat up to find Derek and Emily looking at him expectantly. “Sorry, what?” Spencer figured that he missed a question while he was zoned out. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“We were wondering if it went okay.” Emily said, looking at him with an expression that was hard to read. Serious, but also curious, and something else Spencer couldn’t identify. Spencer sighed, leaning back into his seat.
“Yeah, it went okay.” Spencer said, smiling despite himself.
“What went okay?” JJ showed up out of no where and nearly gave Spencer a heart attack.
“Pretty boy here finally got some!” Derek said, wiggling his annoyingly perfect eyebrows at JJ, who lit up immediately.
“Oh!! With Gay Bar Guy?”
Spencer groaned, collapsing against the back of his wheely office chair and pretending to be dead.
“Yeah, he took Reid to a restaurant and paid for the bill.” Emily said suggestively, and Spencer opened his eyes just to glare at her.
“Gay Bar Guy’s name is Charlie, and yes, we went on a date and it went well.” Spencer said, still in his dramatically limp position.
“Well I’d say so, what’d you do, make out with a vampire?” JJ said, and Spencer suddenly realized that his position as a fake corpse completely exposed the hickeys on his neck. He quickly straightened up, covering his neck with his hand and blushing. Hard.
“No, and I didn’t get attacked by anything.” Spencer grumbled, glaring at Morgan, who was laughing much harder than warranted.
"I’m just messing with you Spence. Really though, how’d it go? What’s he like?” JJ asked, and Spencer bit his lip, thinking.
“It went really well… I had to, well, I had to tell him the truth about the Incident…” Derek stopped grinning at that.
“What do you mean, tell him the truth?” Derek asked, serious, and Prentiss leaned closer, that serious look back on her face.
Spencer looked between the three of the wearily. “About me being undercover when we met. I just… I didn’t want to keep any secrets from him. It would be better to clear everything up in the beginning rather than be caught in a lie later, you know?” Spencer looked up at JJ, who looked concerned.
"Well, how’d he take it?” Derek asked, and Spencer crossed his arms, tucking his hands against his sides.
"It was okay, he took it really well but it was a hard conversation…” Spencer glanced up at Emily before looking back down at his desk. “Once I told him all of it, his biggest concern was how his behavior made him seem like a serial rapist…” Spencer cringed. Just thinking about it made Spencer feel bad all over again. “He wanted to fix whatever it was. I eventually convinced him that there was nothing to fix.”
There was some silence as Morgan, JJ and Prentiss took all of that in.
"And there isn’t? Anything to fix, I mean?” Prentiss asked, and when Spencer just looked at her questioningly, she elaborated more. “He didn’t make you do anything you weren’t comfortable with, right?”
Spencer rolled his eyes. “No, everything that happened between us was extremely consensual.” Spencer replied, and Derek was grinning at him again.
“Atta boy!!” Derek exclaimed, offering Spencer a high-five rather enthusiastically. Spencer ignored his offered high-five, rolling his eyes again.
"Don’t any of you have anything better to do? Anything at all?” Spencer asked, a little bit pleading, and at that moment García walked into the bullpen from her lair, files in hand.
“We’ve got a case.” Garcia said apologetically, and Derek, JJ and Prentiss groaned while Spencer said “Thank god.”
"Wait, hold up; are those hickeys? Wait, are those from Gay Bar Guy?!” Garcia said excitedly and also very, very loudly, and Spencer resigned himself to having a very, very long day.