Rom-com Gone Wrong (Hotch x Reader)// ✔

6. One More Lie is Fine

Summary:

You and Hotch start texting each other, and you get closer. However an exchange makes you stop and reevaluate how you're coming across to the man.

Notes:

im back 🤪 pls this chapter was my fave insofar! and the next one will be fairly ridiculous tooo

(pls i know nth about paperwork or the fbi or how a police database would function so take this w a grain of salt!)
also pls this is supposed to be rom-com levels of ridiculous lmao (ive warned u!!)

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A new month rushes in, wiping away the mouthful of lies you'd stringed along. It starts everything anew. As you are taking a coffee break and calculating just how much it will take you to finish the rest of paperwork, a wild thought springs to mind. The time since the exchanging of phone numbers, has been full of email exchanges: case talks, comments here and there about work, and even some (unnecessary) sharing, on your part, of what the NYPD and your superiors are like.

You follow the impulse that rises from having spent two days on your desk writing reports and text him what's swirling around in your head.

You [13:16]: Do you get out of doing paperwork because you're ridding the world of monsters?

It's lighthearted! It's chill! This new format is more flexible and not stuck up like emailing has been. No more Dear at the start of emails, no more respectfully in the end. You curse under your breath, because you forget to even put a signature to that text. Maybe he'd never even saved the new number.

A reply comes when you're knee-deep into another report. A small buzz shakes your cell over the wooden desk, just as you're drafting an essay in your mind on how you can excuse your actions. It's not airy or even cute to message a very serious, older, agent how much you dislike work. Especially not one you're counting on mentoring you. But the day spent over paperwork makes you remember the time you forwarded him your report and if he's as thorough as you when writing. He does look meticulous, though.

Unfortunately not, Hotch replies and your lips quirk up, not an or situation.

You push your chair away, and lean back, fingers working fast at tapping a reply.

Damn. For a minute, I was going to push for getting an FBI entrance exam.

Hotch [13:35]: Academy first.

You look at the reply that arrives just as soon as yours lands at his phone. He sounds so... good.

Could you make it, realistically? If you were to actually go to the academy? What if you were to have this particular ambition? Your mind conjures up a conclusion: it would be the ultimate way to show that you are really good at your job.

You [13:35]: Is that how you got in? Exam and time at the academy?

The question you want to ask hangs in the air. How many years did it take him to get so good?

Hotch [13:36]: Everyone in my team did it.

The fantasy dies out with those words because his message feels impersonal all of a sudden, or he by default avoids personal questions. So, you ask him what you know and are familiar with - a case question, and he answers.

Over time, text messaging gets easier, and better. You both get into a groove and though he's faster at texting back outside working hours, the occasional text during the day never lacks. It doesn't mean that you're spared thinking about when he'll reply. You learn his patterns too, in that obsessive way you now seem to do just about everything when it concerns Hotch. He emails at night, usually 10pm onwards. He responds more frequently at lunch time, probably during lunch break. Early morning texts are a no-go, and that same period you'd designated as emailing time works better.