spencer reid | one shot scenarios

staring contest

(y/n and spencer have a staring contest.)

as morgan and i step out of the elevator, we turn to spencer and emily with confused looks, almost simultaneously. they were staring into one another's eyes very seriously and content. spencer looked like his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets and emily appeared on the verge of tears.

morgan says, "now what do we have here?" making emily blink. i stop before them, taking a seat on spencer's desk next to a large pile of paperwork. emily groans, "damnit, morgan. reid and i were having a staring contest."

spencer smiles at his victory and they both look up at me as i exclaim, "oo, that sounds like fun. morgan, wanna try?" i take a sip of my coffee, noticing his snarky ass smile.

i knew what was coming, and sure enough, derek suggests, "why don't you and pretty boy give it a try instead?" morgan knew about my crush on spencer and saw the way he looked at me at certain times, so of course, derek being derek, he just had to tease us about it constantly.

emily gets up from her chair and i take a seat in front of spencer, "okay, pretty boy, i'm ready. you ready?"

i'm barely able to hear emily's faint whisper to derek, "there's about to be so much tension; maybe we should leave so they'll admit their feelings."

"you go right ahead.. i've gotta see this." derek watches spencer and i curiously and carefully.

spencer smiles at how i shut my eyes tightly to prepare to keep them open in his for a while. "i'm ready. derek, count down," spencer declares.

i move the hair from my face, already becoming flustered as morgan says, "3.. 2.. 1.. go."

i open my eyes quickly, finding spencer's eyes without hesitation. they were relaxed and his stupidly cute grin made it harder to concentrate. he had really long eyelashes which made me really jealous—somehow men were gifted with longer eyelashes than most women.

you could tell spencer had gone through a lot in his life just by the way he devoured your eyes in a single glance. yet, he tried to stay optimistic even though he had endless generations of trauma underneath them.

i noticed the ring of yellow surrounding his dilated pupils, along with the corners of his lips rising as he spotted my red cheeks.

instead of focusing so hard on his eyes, i provoke, "you're a lot better at this than i presumed, doctor reid."

"what, do you underestimate me?"

i scoff and his nerdy, less-cocky self returns, "a recent study has shown that of fifteen people, researchers found that direct staring increased activity in the amygdala. this is the part of your brain in processing facial cues and people's emotions." he pauses and continues, "another study showed that strangers who looked in each others eyes for two minutes experienced mutual feelings of love and found that the longer someone stares at another's face, the more they became attracted to it."

although i found it interesting and believed it to be quite true, i laugh, "i didn't think you had a fact for that, genius."

"oh, i have more," he says, clearing his throat with a smile, "would you like for me to continue?"

i didn't know how much longer i could hold the eye contact for—my vision was already bad to begin with. but spencer seemed to be doing just fine. "try me," i order.

"while our eyes naturally dilate every day to adjust how much light can go through and also to help focus, it has been proven that your eyes can involuntarily dilate when you're attracted to someone-"

i cut him off before he's able to finish, "i already knew this."

ignoring me, he keeps going, "oxytocin and dopamine—the "love hormones"—have an affect on pupil size. your brain gets a boost of these chemicals when you're sexually or romantically attracted to someone. this surge in hormones appears to make your pupils dilate. dilation may also be related to the biological need to reproduce."

prentiss says, "ooo," in a flirty manner, but neither of us broke the eye contact, although a few nervous smiles escaped.

spencer's boastful attitude comes back as he slyly says, "your eyes are dilated, y/n."

"and who's to say yours aren't?"

i didn't realize how close he was to me until he blinks and backs away, all while clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"i win!" i shout, to which he purses his lips in a smile. "you caught me off guard with that last one," he says, bringing his coffee cup to his lip and taking a small sip.

"now did i?"

——
word count — 796.
(credits to @umhello48 for this idea 😋)