"Little do you know" - Hotchniss

open up

"Open up, Em", Hotch yelled as she didn't open the door to her apartment the next day. They had returned from a case some hours ago and now the team planned to meet up in a bar. He sighed as he got out his bunch of keys to unlock the door.

"Seriously?", he said as he walked into her apartment, finding her sleeping on her bed. He smiled at how peaceful she looked, sitting down next to her.

"Emily", he said in a soft voice, putting on hand on her shoulder. "You have to get up now."

She groaned and opened her eyes slowly: "No. Just no."

"Did you directly head to bed as soon as you came home?", he chuckled, pointing at her bag which had simply been dropped in front of her bed.

"I was tired", Emily yawned and rolled over, laying on her stomach.

"Obviously", he laughed.

"Hey!", she hit his chest playfully. "You're way too early by the way. We still have plenty of time."

Hotch watched his best friend closing her eyes again, with a little smile on her lips. He couldn't help but watch her. He had never told her how beautiful she was. That would probably even cross their line. God, how he hated the way he felt.

"Em, we are supposed to be there in 20 minutes", he said.

"The coolest people always arrived as the latest", she mumbled, not even opening her eyes.

He knew that nothing he could say would make her get up, so he made us of the only tactic he could think of. Emily hated tickling. It made her jump all the time and she never expected it.

"I hate you!", she managed to say between her own laughter as he started to tickle her. Soon, this had turned into some kind of war, leaving both of them breathless on her bed some minutes later.

"I don't wanna go out tonight", Emily said, looking over to him.

"Me neither", he said, out of breath. "Pizza?"

She nodded, looking for her phone to text JJ that Hotch and her wouldn't make it, while he grabbed his and called the delivery service.

Emily was glad that they stayed in together. She preferred spending time with him, alone, even though she loved the team. She was still out of breath from their little 'tickling-war', yet she had really enjoyed being this close to him, but she would probably never admit that. This mixture of feelings was driving her crazy.

"You okay?", he asked as he hung up.

"Yea", she smiled. "Coffee?"

He nodded and she walked into the kitchen, whereas he walked over to her closet and grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a shirt which he kept at her place for situations like this. He quickly got changed and also pulled out comfy clothes for her since she had just fallen asleep in her clothes from work.

"You're a god", she sighed as she came back with two cups of coffee, pointing at the clothes he had thrown on her bed.

"I know", he grinned.

"Aaand you ruined it", she rolled her eyes but chuckled, handing him one cup.

He always drank his coffee without any additions, pure and black, she on the opposite always added some milk and sweetening. She grabbed her clothes and put the cup down on her bedside table before heading to the bathroom.

They had already spent plenty of nights like this; staying awake all night with coffee, watching random TV-Shows and talking, just talking. He sat down on her bed, leaning his back against the wall. Grabbing the remote control, he switched on the TV in her bedroom and started to zap through some channels.

"Get your ass off my pillow", she grinned as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Nope, sorry", he smiled provokingly.

"I should've gone to the bar with the team", she sighed but of course, she didn't mean it. She loved to stay with him. "You're really annoying."

"That's why we are friends", he explained and threw the pillow in her direction.

"Way better", she chuckled as she caught it, before climbing onto the bed, sitting down next to him. "What are we watching?"

"Let's see what's on", he suggested and both of them turned their heads to the TV.

-

Later that night, they still sat on her bed, surrounded by empty pizza cartoons and coffee mugs, not tired at all. They knew that they had to go to work the next day, but they didn't care at all. They had done this many times before.

"Do you think Reid still has feelings for JJ?", Emily suddenly asked him, her eyes still fixed on 'Rizzoli & Isles' while she was eating a slice of cold pizza.

They always gossiped a lot, especially about the relationships of team members. Everyone knew that JJ and Reid had been on a date a long time ago, but nobody knew what had happened between them. The only thing everyone knew that he hid his feelings for her and they somehow had decided to stay close friends without even talking about it.

"Reid?", Hotch asked in surprise, looking at her.

She turned her head as well, looking up to him. "Yea", she nodded. "I mean, she's now officially with Will, I don't think that Reid likes this idea."

"Possibly", he replied. He asked himself if his feelings for Emily and the way he hated the times where she was dating someone were as obvious as Reid's. "But why hasn't he said anything to her before?"

"I don't know", she shrugged. "I guess something happened at this date ages ago. I wish I knew, but no matter how hard I try, JJ does not want to talk about it."

"Do you know if JJ ever had feelings for him?"

"I guess she was at least interested in him", Emily nodded. "I mean, she cared about him way too much to be just friends."

Emily wished she would have never said this out loud. She cared about Hotch way too much as well, yet they were 'just friends'. If JJ had feelings for Reid or the other way around, and they were both just too scared to admit it, she would totally understand. Never in a thousand years she would be able to tell Hotch how she felt about him.

"Whatever, I believe she really likes Will. She is not that kind of person to use him, at least I think so.", Hotch answered, turning his head back to the screen.

"That's why I asked if you think that Reid still has feelings for her, not the other way around, you idiot", Emily grinned.

"I'm not an idiot!", he said, immediately looking at her again.

"If you think so", she chuckled.

"Do you want me to tickle you again?", he grinned.

"Hell, no!", she objected. "You're not idiot."

He just laughed, and she soon joined him. Sometime around 4 am they fell asleep next to each other. They would have to get up at 5.30 a, yet neither of them regretted nights like this. Even though they had fallen asleep only laying next to each other, they always woke up, finding themselves in each other's arms. It was usually Hotch who woke up first and always pulled her out of his arms carefully. He liked holding her, but he didn't want them to get into a awkward situation.