To Build A Home (3)
Summary: Aaron Hotchner x fe!Reader -> As your undercover case as a married couple comes to a close, you and Aaron have to face the consequences of crossed lines.
Disclaimer: Fluff, yearning, lines finally get crossed, steamy moments, Penelope Garcia being reader and Hotch's number one shipper, shirtless Hotch...again. Part one. Part two.
It took another ten days before the Unsub was caught.
Which meant another ten days of being Aaron’s wife. Of him being your husband. It meant another ten days of intense PDA, showing off as the lustfully in love, active couple, trying for a baby.
It meant another ten days of knowing everything about one another; sleeping in each other’s arms, teasing each other, waking up and drinking coffee together, having Friday date nights, and putting on a show that couldn’t go further once the curtains were closed.
It meant another ten days of acting on feelings you’d held for each other for years, knowing all of it was…for someone else.
The Unsub turned out to be Richard; the Real Estate agent that had access to the homes and the people that lived in them.
He hadn’t known you or Aaron were undercover when you moved in. Penelope had conversed with him under the alias of a HR manager who was helping find a suitable home for her new second-in-command (which was you).
And he’d done everything exactly as the team had suspected.
He was jealous of the outwardly loving relationship of those around him. The barbeques were just a trap to see who would be his best target. His relationship was on the rocks with his wife, who had secretly been in contact with a divorce lawyer.
Seeing the noticeable loving relationship between yourself and Aaron had sent him over the edge. But, rather than acting quickly, he took his time. Watched you both longer, spent more time with you both; it was practically self punishing for him.
“Is it bad if I say I don’t want to leave?”
The others were staying at a hotel for the night. They’d been helping both you and Aaron pack up your undercover home, but for the last few things, you’d told them you and Hotch would handle it.
“Because of the house?” Hotch asked you, “Or because of..”
Aaron was standing beside you as you rested more photo frames in the cardboard box. On the top was a photo of both of you, taken not too long before the case started.
It had been a warm day and, with a rare day off, you’d taken your mother to breakfast in the city when you’d made a call to Aaron. Your mother was begging to see him, too. And, he’d shown up.
Which was when she’d begged for another photo of you two together. She didn’t have an up-to-date one, so, with reluctance, you both agreed.
Considering Penelope was the one that found the copy, you knew there would be some explaining to do the next time you saw your mother.
“Both,” you said. “But…mostly the latter.”
Turning to look at him to gauge his reaction, you let every wall fall. You trusted Aaron with your life. And you knew he trusted you. And, after the last seventeen days, there had been too many moments.
You couldn’t ignore them.
Not when years of friendship and feelings were involved.
Hotch nodded. “So…if I said that I felt the same…would it make you feel less weird about it?”
You shifted on your feet. “Do you feel the same?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
You swallowed, unsure of what to say. But you couldn’t tear your eyes from him.
Letting out a small breath, Aaron lowered his walls, too. “You’re my best friend. I trust you with my life, I always have. But I also know that you’re more than that to me. And that I feel more than that for you.”
He could see the tears behind your eyes. They let him know you were hearing him, but also living through every moment you had shared together since the beginning.
“Do you feel that for me?”
“Yes,” you admitted, without hesitation, though your voice was a little shaky. “I don’t want to lose you, Aaron.”
He reached out for you. “And you won’t. I can promise you that.”
“Can you?” You asked. “Can I promise it to you?”
“What are you scared of?”
You took in a shaky breath. “I’ve thought about it for a long time, Aaron. I had…” You rolled your lips, gathering yourself together. “I had accepted the fact that you and I would never be anything more. Maybe the best I could hope for was ‘work husband’ and ‘work wife’. I don’t want ‘us’ to happen because we got reality confused with fantasy.”
“But it’s not a fantasy.” Aaron told you.
“Aaron-”
He held you gently at your shoulders, “It’s not.”
He made sure you were looking at him when he told you.
“I love you, Y/n. I love you as my best friend, I love you as my work wife,” Aaron chuckled a little but the seriousness of his words quickly returned. “But, most importantly, I love you as my other half. And that is something I have considered you, since we first sat in that broken down movie theatre, soaking wet from that torrential rain, remember?”
You nodded.
You’d known Aaron Hotchner for almost a year at that point. Every couple of evenings, you’d both sit together in the library and study. When you weren’t studying, you were both talking.
Turned out, you both had a lot more in common than you thought. You very quickly became close friends and, despite the rumours, you and Aaron maintained a solid friendship.
One that had you bringing him home during Spring Break since his family was away. During that time, you had taken him on a tour of your town where most things were within walking distance. Only, when you’d both reached one side of town, your car was at least a twenty minute run. When the rain started to fall, you’d both taken shelter in the old movie theatre.
Somewhere on the run, a tunnel of wind had brought up a lot of the old gravel from the parking lot so, in between the laughter from the adrenaline and the slightly creepy vibes of the building, you’d helped clean the small cut on Aaron’s face.
“I remember.”
Aaron smiled. “I knew from then on, not only did I know that I loved you, but that I wanted you in my life, for the rest of my life.”
You took in a breath and leaned into Aaron’s touch as he held your face.
“So please believe me when I say, I know this isn’t a fantasy between us. Undercover or not, that doesn’t change the fact that I love you.”
Unable to hold back anymore, you leaned in and kissed Aaron. The way he held your face, gentle and secure, compared to the way he kissed you, desperate and longing; all of it made you melt into him.
You felt his arms wrap completely around you, one at your waist, the other in your hair. Completely flush against him, he practically devoured your kiss.
“I love you, too. More than you know…more than I could say.”
Aaron kissed you again. And you said it, again. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
He lifted you in his arms. Your knee knocked the cardboard box onto the sofa and the different pictures scattered across the cushions. Not that either of you would be picking them up in the morning.
In the meantime, you let Aaron carry you up the stairs and towards the same bedroom you’d both spent the last seventeen nights sleeping in, side by side. The curtains had been closed hours before, so there was no need to break the moment between either of you.
Reaching for the hem of his t-shirt, you helped pull it over his head before he tossed it across the room.
“Are you sure about this?” Hotch asked you.
You held his face, making sure he looked directly at you. “Yes. Are you?”
“Do you really have to ask?” Both of you laughed a little at his question as you could have answered for him.
His erection had been prodding against you since he’d first lifted you up. And, if the way he was kissing you was anything to go off, he wasn’t prepared to stop.
Not that you wanted him to.
By the time morning rolled around, and you and Hotch had taken a shower and finally gotten changed, Derek pulled up outside the house with Penelope in the passenger seat.
“You lovebirds finally ready yet?”
You rolled your eyes and flipped Derek off as you made your way over to the U-Haul van. Meanwhile, you watched Hotch lean down and talk to Derek, telling him he’d follow them back to the airport.
Despite the entire thing being undercover, you and Hotch still had to return the U-Haul and everything in it. There would be agents waiting at the airport.
“Oh, wait! Sir! Give this to Y/n!”
By the time Hotch was climbing into the driver’s seat and handing you the pink and yellow polka dot box, Derek had pulled out and was waiting for Hotch to start his engine.
“What is it?”
You shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Opening it, you couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Do you think we need to worry about Garcia having access to security tapes?”
“Why?”
You showed him the handmade photo album that was titled To Build A Home. Each page had a picture that had been cleared up from security tapes, or one that had been taken of you and Aaron together.
The first was of yourself and Hotch standing outside of your new home, side by side with your arms around each other. The more you flipped through, you realised it was a time-line. You and Hotch inside your home, putting up new curtains…
You’d been standing on the ladder, but Hotch had wrapped his arm around your middle and lifted you down when the ladders had shaken one too many times.
There was you and Aaron in the doorway of your home, when he’d lifted you from the door. Another where you’d posed with some of your neighbours, though they’d been cropped out. Aaron had his arms around your waist from behind and had crouched to put his chin over your shoulder as your palm delicately held his face.
There were some of you and Aaron in your garden, or outside your home. Most were from when the maintenance van had rolled by. But every single photo was a memory you would cherish.
And Penelope had captured every single one, with a handwritten note below: Every new home needs a loving couple, it also needs curtains and rom-com worthy moments, a home needs beautiful gardens…
On the back, you found a small note.
There’s so much darkness in our jobs, I wanted you both to remember something good.
Aaron smiled. “As her boss, I’m worried. As your partner…I’m glad we’ve got pictures.”
You smiled and for a moment, you thought about kissing him. Until you heard Derek beep his horn. Then, you were both pulling on your seatbelts and heading home.



















