After the USPS creates a penpal pairing program, Elizabeth Mills is encouraged by her friends to sign up and talk to someone new. Spencer Reid, bored with only getting bills and advertisements in his mailbox signs up for a penpal.
The two get paire...
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Entering Spencer's apartment was an experience in itself. To any normal person, the room would look like a mess with books littered around all corners of the room, however to Elizabeth the apartment was clearly organised. The books were in piles by topic and the filled bookshelves was organised by subject and author name.
On top of that, the place was clearly well cared for and the distinct smell of pine and old books was comforting. Spencer walked past Elizabeth, hanging up his bag and placing his keys in a small bowl on the side.
"Well, make yourself at home." He smiled, "It's not much but it's home."
"It's nice, I like it." Elizabeth said, walking around the room, examining the bookshelves as she did so. "You read a lot of classics."
Spencer nodded, "They're nostalgic. I read them a lot when I was younger, and my mom used to read them to me. I guess that's why I like them so much."
"What are you reading at the moment?"
Spencer walked over to the bookshelf, and stood by Elizabeth, his fingers running along the spines of the books before plucking one out of the shelf. 'The Brothers Karamazov' was printed in bold Russian font on the front. "I started re-reading it, I'm about half way through at the moment. I remember reading it in college and not really getting it, but I think it's becoming one of my favourites."
"How many favourites do you have now?" Elizabeth joked, laughing lightly as she did so.
"About 56, but you can never have too much of a good thing."
"That we can both agree on."
Spencer smiled down at Elizabeth before neatly tucking the book back into the shelf. "Have you taken a look through the offer you got yet?"
"Oh. No, I haven't. I'm probably going to wait until I get home to look it over, get a few peoples opinions on it."
He nodded, walking away from the bookshelf as Elizabeth's eye's continued to look over the thousands of titles from all over the world. There were several books that she knew she wouldn't even be able to comprehend, mainly about theoretical physics and other types of science subjects, that although Elizabeth had minored in, she had never done well in, instead choosing to make the rest of her minors in less maths based subjects, like English literature, History and taking an art class.
However as her eyes continued through the shelf, she found more books on subjects from almost every area of study; Art, history, geography, medicine, psychology, music, every subject you could want to look into, Spencer had at least one book on. It was incredible. Each had tabs sticking out from the top, marking something he'd found particularly interesting. Some were half-hazardly stacked on top of each other where there was no longer any space to put books.
She wondered how he even had time to read so much with so little time, though she supposed his job was primarily research based and he would need as board a spectrum of knowledge as possible to excel at his work.
"Do you want something to drink?" Spencer asked from the kitchen, snapping Elizabeth from her thoughts.
"Just a water, thank you." She said, walking to the kitchen. The kitchen had far less clutter than the living room, instead just a few cookbooks that, unlike those on the bookshelf, looked as though they hadn't even been opened. "You really don't cook that often, do you?"
Spencer turned the tap off before handing the glass to Elizabeth. "Like I said, I always seem to be away."
The curly haired woman took a sip of the water. There was an air of awkwardness around the two. This was the first time they'd ever actually been alone together, in a space they were likely not going to be interrupted in and neither of them were focused on work. It was just them.
Spencer shuffled awkwardly, taking a sip out of his glass. "So, what do you want to do?"
Elizabeth shrugged. "I'm honestly not sure. What are you thinking?"
"Do you want to watch a film?" He suggested.
"Sure, what were you thinking?"
"I have a few I've been wanting to watch," He said, walking back into the living room, Elizabeth following behind. He flicked through a small selection of DVD's, the curly haired woman joining his side, her eyes flicking through the titles. Several of them were films were foreign, titles from all across the world, while others were big films that she remembered being released. However, only one caught her eye.
"The Princess Bride?" She asked, picking it out of the shelf.
"I read it when I was younger, and then I watched the film. It's something I kept from when I lived in Vegas. I haven't watched it since."
"Do you want to watch it?" She asked, looking at him.
Spencer didn't realise how close she was until he turned to answer her. He was close enough to see the flecks of green and gold in the depths of her dark eyes and close enough to feel her breath on his skin.
He took a breath, "If you want to."
She smiled, "Come on, it'll be fun." She said, passing the case to him.
"Go get comfy, I'll figure out how to get the DVD player working."
She laughed lightly, and he did too. Happy to make her happy.
After a few minutes of fiddling with wires at the back of the TV (and a little help from Elizabeth, though Spencer found it hard to admit he needed the help in the first place) and the movie was playing. The two sat on the couch, awkwardly far apart, to the point where the distance was uncomfortable.
Throughout the film, Spencer found himself shifting towards Elizabeth, and she found herself doing the same. Eventually, they were sitting next to each other, hands barely grazing each other.
One of them was going to have to make the first move, Spencer knew that. He also knew that there was a chance that she could pull her hand back, and in that moment it could be the worst thing that could happen.
Slowly, he reached out, his fingers ghosting over her hand. At that point he wasn't even paying attention to the movie, and instead to her hand. He took one last breath before he finally interlocked their fingers.
The first thing Elizabeth noticed about Spencer's hands were how cold they were in comparison to hers. The second thing was how natural it felt to hold his hand. She smiled, looking at their interlocked hands.
She could see why her friends wanted her to meet someone new.
