h0tch4rc

[h0tch4rc]

Love and loss | Hotch x Haley

He was fifteen when he first realized that the word “home” didn’t mean the same thing to everyone.

Aaron Hotchner didn’t grow up in a cozy home. There are things he doesn’t talk about — not because he hides them, but because he’s spent a lifetime surviving them.

But then there was Haley Brooks. She was light in the kind of way that made you realize how dark your world actually was. Aaron had seen her at a theater rehearsal, and she had smiled at him like he was already someone worth smiling at.

And it destroyed him in the sweetest way.

He signed up for the school play the next day — not because he loved acting, he was terrible at it, really. But she was there. And something about the way she smiled, or the way she laughed when the scene went wrong, pulled him into like nothing else he ever had.

She noticed him. Not just as a background guy, but as Aaron, the quiet boy who kept to himself, but who, for some reason, forced himself to show up at something he clearly didn’t belong in.

“Hotchner, right?” she asked him one day after rehearsal, handing him a bottle of water. “You’re a terrible actor. But I like that you try.”

He laughed, genuinely, for the first time in weeks.

Sometimes they stayed after rehearsals, talking. They’d sit on the edge of the stage and talk about nothing — movies, music, their classes. And then, slowly, she started asking real questions. Not the ones that demanded explanations, but the ones that made him feel seen.

She was the first person who ever made him feel like he was more than what he came from. With her, he didn’t have to prove himself, or hide the cracks. She didn’t ask him to explain his silences — she just filled them with warmth.

And maybe that’s how love begins: not with grand gestures, but with small, quiet gestures of being noticed. Being chosen.

When things at home went wrong — and they often did — Aaron would find himself reliving the moments with her in his mind like a lifeline. Her voice. Her smile. The way she made the world a little less harsh.

She was the first person to show him that love didn’t have to hurt.

Years later, digging through a box in the back of a closet, he finds it — the worn, ridiculous pirate hat from that play he barely remembers the lines to.

Pirate Number Four.

He turns it over in his hands, the fabric soft with age, and for a moment, he can almost hear her laugh again — bright, full of life, calling him a terrible actor.

He whispers that one line they both loved — not because it was important, but because it was theirs:

“Even pirates need somewhere to come home to.”

For a long moment, he just stands there, hat pressed to his chest, the quiet settling around him like a memory he can’t put down.

“You were mine,” he says softly.

And in the stillness that follows, it almost feels like she hears him.

[h0tch4rc]

Hotch gets home later than usual, staying at the office to do his paperwork. When he finally gets home, it’s quiet, too quiet. He can’t hear Emily, or Jack, and for a moment his heart skips a beat.

He checks the living room. Nothing. The kitchen. Still nothing. He calls her once, no answer. Emily should have been home with him a couple hours ago. Just when that feeling of panic starts to creep in, he turns the corner and walks into Jack’s room… and there they are.

Emily and Jack, both asleep on top of the covers, the TV still playing the Captain America movie Jack insisted on watching. Like always. Jack’s head is resting on her shoulder, and Emily’s arm is wrapped around him protectively.

Hotch exhales, softly. He doesn’t wake them, just watches them in the doorway. Then he turns off the TV, pulls a blanket over them both, and allows himself to feel the softness.

[h0tch4rc]

— Georgia O'Keeffe, from a letter to Russel Vernon Hunter, from Georgia O'Keeffe: Art and Letters (via letsbelonelytogetherr)

[h0tch4rc]

CASUAL AARON HOTCHNER

HOTCH + T-SHIRTS 

[h0tch4rc]

Garcia knew that many of them didn’t love celebrating their birthdays — some because of painful memories, others because they felt too old for it or simply didn’t see the point anymore.

So, every time one of their birthdays rolled around, she’d show up at the office with a single muffin and a tiny candle. To her, it mattered that everyone felt seen, that they had the chance to mark another year of surviving, living, being here.

And of course, she made them close their eyes, make a wish, and blow out the candle — whether they rolled their eyes or not — because deep down, she still believed that maybe, just maybe, those little things could still work.

[h0tch4rc]

‘emily and hotch are like siblings’ disturbing if you look at your siblings like you wanna marry them but ok

[h0tch4rc]

Hotch and Emily go to a new restaurant once a month to try foods from different cultures. It's their way of getting away from the chaos.

Emily always orders in the restaurant's native language, changing her accent as if it were nothing. Hotch never says a word about it, he just listens in silence, watching her with that unreadable expression of his.

He never complains, he never comments, but he certainly doesn't go unnoticed. Not even a little bit. In fact, he finds her quite sexy, but he would never admit it out loud.

[h0tch4rc]

“no one’s asked me a question in 45 minutes” energy

[h0tch4rc]

I don't care if he punched a producer give me back my dilf

[h0tch4rc]

*after gideons death*

hotch: uh team, we have some bad news.

the team: what?

rossi: um..everyone who has a father-figure, step forward.

the team: *steps forward.*

hotch: not so fast, reid.

spencer: *gasps*

[h0tch4rc]

spencer reid + hands

[h0tch4rc]

i don’t like the layout of goodreads i need a letterboxd but for books

[h0tch4rc]

[h0tch4rc]

Lee Krasner // Franz Kafka

[h0tch4rc]

When Dostoevsky said, "Pain changes you, but it teaches. That is its mercy." but Kafka said, "Pain changes nothing. It just repeats itself until you forget who you were before it started."

[h0tch4rc]

the way he holds his back. like holding a little kid. like he holds his own son. ooouuggh .. i know spence has slipped up and called hotch ‘dad’ before