#[woof it felt so wonderful to write my little boy genius i love him. i forgot how much i love his hdm verse.

[godblooded]

after writing an actual long thread it's bedtime.

[vintagecxctus]

“Something Bad”

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-before we begin, this fic deals with sexual assault and it’s mentioned fairly directly. read with caution and your own safety and comfort in mind. this is technically a “reid-centric” fic but i do want to write a sequel to this that is more morgan focused because i think that his experience with Carl Buford is often overlooked. i’m rambling, thank you for reading :))-

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It felt selfish, coming here. To Spencer at least. He stood stiff as a board, preparing himself to knock. As it would be, he didn’t have to. The door opened on its own, no prompting from the man before it.

“Spencer?” Morgan’s deep husky voice, laced with concern called out.

“How’d you know I was at the door?” Reid inquired, staring hard at the ground.

“Clooney has missed you, must have smelled you through the door. Either way, he was going nuts. Whining and barking until I got him to his favorite genius.” As if to make a point, Clooney woofed from beside Derek, tongue out chaps drawn back into a dopey grin.

Spencer got onto his knees and began petting the puppy, who’s tail was now going a mile a minute. He gave one wet kiss to Spencer’s face and layed down on his lap, not quite fitting.

“Dogs know.” Morgan said smiling sadly at his coworker and dog. “When something is wrong, I mean. Why don’t you two come inside and continue this cuddle session.”

“Derek, something bad happened.” Spencer said, always having a way with dramatically understating things. Clooney whimpered and nudged Spencer’s hand at the sudden change in body language.

“I know.” Morgan said, placing a comforting hand on Spencer’s shoulder, light enough that the other boy could shake it off if he wanted.

“You know?” Spencer looked up, making eye contact for the first time tonight with wide glossy eyes.

“I know that something happened, and I know when. I don’t know what though.” Morgan saw the boys confused look and explained, “You came into work one day and everything was different. Like your personality had shifted just slightly. You wouldn’t look at anyone, your smiles were fake, you’ve lost weight.”

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, nothing at all. Something bad happened, and when it did you changed to accommodate for the something bad, for survival.” It made much more sense coming out of Morgan’s mouth.

“Can I tell you the Something Bad?” He wasn’t sure when it became capitalized in his mind.

“Of course Reid, you’re my best friend. I’m here for you for the rest of your life, like it or not.” They had made their way to the couch and Spencer’s hand somehow made it into Derek’s.

“I can’t say who did it. You and the team would try to find them, and I don’t want that. Someone hurt me.” Clooney whimpered from the floor, pawing at the couch. Derek snapped and motioned at him and he hopped onto the couch, nuzzling his way into Spencer’s lap.

“He came over to my apartment, I haven’t seen him in a while so I was surprised to see him. He….offered a drink. I don’t drink, so I let him make me tea. I never….I’m assuming he put something in it. It’s all blurry from there. I had such a clear, conscious, train of thought. But my body was numb and felt a bit like jelly. I couldn’t have fought back in that state. I tried. I tried so fucking hard.” Theres tears running down the younger mans face. Morgan is tense and visibly shaken.

“Did he….” They danced a pas de deux around the word ‘Rape’.

“Yes. He just took everything he wanted, and I couldn’t do anything to make it stop. I don’t remember all of it. I went to a happier place in my mind as much as I could, once I realized this was happening and I couldn’t stop it.” The conversation broke off in a sob.

“God, I’m so sorry Spence.” Words were failing the man.

“Can….Can you hold me? Just for a minute.” Spencer was barely done with his sentence before Derek was pulling him into his lap, letting Spencer’s head curl into his chest. Clooney let out a groan and, if dogs could glare that is, glared at Morgan. Just to say ‘you took my cuddle buddy away’.

“Clooney isn’t pleased.” Derek let out a breathy laugh, running his fingers through Spencer’s hair. It was clear it hadn’t been brushed through in a long time and it made Derek’s stomach churn.

“He can join us if you’re okay with it.” Spencer honest to god giggled when he looked at the dogs pout. He had now turned onto his back and was sliding off the couch with a dramatic howl, like an upset toddler.

“Come here you silly boy. I would never separate you two for long.” Clooney came over and hopped right into the pile of limbs.

“How did you do it?” Spencer looked up at Derek, such faith and adoration in his eyes that it almost brought him to tears. He cradled Reid’s head and pulled him into a tight hug.

“How did I do what, pretty boy?” Morgan secretly wondered if it was okay for him to call him that right now.

“Heal.” Reid frowned. “From your Something Bad.”

“I didn’t heal for a long time. Concealing it doesn’t fix it. I didn’t heal until after the case in Chicago. After I told someone, in that sense, your pattern of healing is already ahead of mine.” Love churned in his gut, god this was a talk he never wanted to have. “You’re ahead in another way too, I didn’t have someone who understood to help me.”

“You want to help me heal?” Reid let another few tears fall before Clooney licked them off his face.

“Of course I do. I want to help you with all of this. I want to be there for the good days and the bad. I wanna be there when you can’t get out of bed and when you find your voice to take this douche bag down. I want to be there not just for you, but with you.” Morgan offered. Reid broke. He just cried and cried. Clooney couldn’t keep up anymore and just let them fall.

When the tears stopped and the storm seemed to give way, they talked again.

“How about you stay here tonight? I’ll order us food, it’s on me. We can watch whatever you want until ungodly hours and then you and Clooney can cuddle you to death in your sleep. I was serious about his missing you, that dog needs his Spencer.”

“I didn’t think anything would ever sound good or fun again.” Spencer smiled just a little. “That sounds amazing.”

So that’s how they spent the night, cuddling on the couch and eating pizza, watching Doctor Who and, who knew that Spencer even liked this, reality TV. And when it got too late, neither of them had the strength to untangle. So they didn’t, and they stayed that way, in a deep sleep posed together as Valdaro Lovers.

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i hope that you enjoyed this and please take it with a grain of salt because it’s not my best work.

[raendown]

Pairing: KibaShikamaru Word count: 1059 Soulmate au: The one where the most important words they will ever say to you are written on your arm in their handwriting

Follow the link or read it under the cut!

KO-FI in the blog header!

Chapter 179: Kiba/Shikamaru

They’d known each other for years and Kiba had been in love with that stupid spiky asshole for somewhat close to three of them when the words finally came out. As much as he’d known with his entire heart that he could never love anyone again the way he loved Shikamaru, Kiba hadn’t actually suspected that they could be soulmates. It seemed just a little too far-fetched, a little too good to be true, so the idea had never even crossed his mind.

Even worse, the moment they came wasn’t anything close to significant. Both of them were drunk and alone on a Friday night. Others had been here earlier, of course, but their friends had all trooped off on some sort of unsteady adventure when Naruto piped up that he had a terrible craving for ramen. Apparently finding out whether or not Ichiraku’s was still open at this hour was a seven person job.

Kiba lolled his head back, trying to tilt far enough that he could see passed the back of the couch and in to the kitchen. Five minutes seemed like a long time for Shikamaru to be getting them another round of drinks. Maybe he’d gotten lost in the fridge. This was Choji’s house; the fridge itself was the size of Kiba’s entire pantry at home.

“Did you fall in?” he called. Something clattered on the floor, something else rustled quietly, and then his friend reappeared in the corner of his vision with a triumphant smile and two beers.

“Almost,” Shikamaru admitted.

“What…what does he even need that much food for?” Despite concentrating very hard on not doing so, Kiba still managed to slur every single word in that sentence. Shikamaru didn’t comment on it, luckily, only shrugged and handed him his drink.

“He’s an Akimichi. You know they’re always ready to feed an army at a moment’s notice.”

Since that was true and logical and very wise Kiba granted him a solemn nod. Then he yelped and fell sideways when Shikamaru flopped down next to him, toppling his upper body directly in to his companion’s lap. The two of them stared at each other for a moment while Kiba’s nose twitched, delighted to find itself in the epicenter of his favorite human scent, then Shikamaru let out a single huff of laughter.

“You fell over,” he pointed out. What a genius.

Akamaru lifted his massive head from where he had been lounging on the opposite side of the kotatsu, woofing gently in questions. When his human didn’t answer he lurched to his feet and padded around to drop his massive head in Kiba’s lap.

“No, not now,” Kiba said, meaning to push him away but ending up petting his snout instead. “I think both of us together would be a bit heavy. And I don’t think Shika wants you drooling all over him. Sorry, boy.” He felt bad immediately when Akamaru whined and his ears went all droopy.

“Let him rest his head,” Shikamaru told him. Kiba tilted his chin up so he could look at the young man he was lounging on, blinking to clear his hazy vision, and tried to rearrange his face in to a brave expression.

“You don’t have to say that.”

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. “Wasn’t just saying it. You’re a package deal. You and your dog are always welcome with me”

He jerked when Kiba gave a full body shudder and watched curiously as he fumbled with the sleeve of his ever-present leather jacket. Since he was a very young child Kiba had been careful nto to leave his house without wearing sleeves to cover his words. When the material slid up they both stared at the softly glowing writing on his arm, written in a hand that looked all too familiar to both of them.

“That’s my writing,” Shikamaru said. His head was spinning.

“You just said what this says!” Kiba looked up at him with wide eyes and a slack jaw. “You said this! My words! The important ones! You said me and my dog were important and – wow. No one’s ever said that before.”

“I mean, the two of you are kind of a package deal,” his friend pointed out. “Gotta love one to love the other.”

“Yeah. See, you get it!”

“Of course I do, I’m a genius.” Shikamaru lifted both eyebrows and kept a straight face just long enough for Kiba to crack and then both of them dissolved in to helpless laughter that tasted like beer and bright futures.

When they both calmed down Kiba squirmed until he was able to sit up, setting his drink aside then turned sideways and leaning back in to Shikamaru’s space to say, “I can’t believe I’ve been in love with my own soulmate all this time, how crazy is that? Damn. I feel stupid now for not saying anything.”

“I…can’t believe you’re in love with me?” Shikamaru breathed. For a moment Kiba wondered if he should be embarrassed to have accidentally blurted out his own secret like that but there was too much alcohol in his system at the moment and he was still flying high from discovering the identity of his soulmate – and that Shikamaru, of all people, was the one to understand the true heart of who he was as a person – to do anything except express his feelings the only way that felt appropriate.

Embarrassingly, he missed on his first attempt at going in for a kiss. Kiba huffed when he heard Shikamaru laughing at him, shuffled a little to center his balance, and leaned in again. He definitely did not miss that time.

They were, however, interrupted rather quickly by a sudden howling from the floor by their feet.

“Can you not see that we’re busy?” Kiba spluttered. Akamaru whined and scratched at the floor, shaking his head until his ears began to comically flop about.

“Ah he’s just upset that he’s not a part of things. Did you need a kiss too Akamaru?” Shikamaru grinned when the dog whined again and dropped his head down to cover it with one paw. Kiba stared at his companion in awe.

“Man, you really do get us,” chuckled.

Then he lunged forward to chase those genius lips again, flipping Akamaru the bird while he did as a precaution against any more unnecessary interruptions.