Aaron hotchner fluff please 🙏🏼
Night In
aaron hotchner x reader
sfw
summary: aaron comes home after a long case, and you make sure he feels loved
warnings: none!
a/n: I've never written for him before so I hope this is okay!
The apartment was quiet except for the low hum of the refrigerator and the occasional creak of the floorboards as you paced. It had been a long case — three days of barely any sleep and terse phone calls from Aaron that always ended with the same exhausted “I’ll be home soon, sweetheart.”
You’d already set the table for two, lit the candle you knew he secretly liked (even if he’d never admit it), and had his favorite pasta sauce simmering. Jack was at a sleepover, which meant tonight was just yours.
The sound of keys in the door made your heart lift. You turned just as Aaron stepped inside, shoulders heavy under his suit jacket, tie already loosened. His eyes found you immediately, and the sharp lines of his face softened in that way they only did for you.
“You’re still up,” he said, voice rough with fatigue. He closed the door behind him and set his go-bag down.
You crossed the room and reached up to help him shrug off his jacket. He let you, watching you with those dark, steady eyes that always made you feel seen.
Aaron caught your hands before you could step away, pulling you gently against his chest. He smelled like coffee and the faint trace of jet fuel, but underneath it was just him — warm and solid. His arms wrapped around you like he’d been waiting for this exact moment since he left.
“You didn’t have to wait,” he murmured into your hair, but the way his grip tightened told you he was glad you had.
“I wanted to.” You tilted your head back to look at him.
Your fingers found the knot of his tie and worked it loose, sliding it free. “Let’s get you out of this suit, Agent Hotchner. Dinner’s almost ready, and I’m not accepting ‘I’m too tired’ as an answer.”
A rare, small smile tugged at his lips — the one that still made your stomach flutter even after all this time. “Bossy tonight.”
“Only when you need it.”
He left for the bedroom, where he changed into soft gray sweatpants and one of his old FBI Academy shirts while you finished plating the pasta. When he reappeared, hair slightly tousled, he wrapped his arms around you from behind as you stood at the stove.
“Smells incredible,” he said, pressing a kiss just below your ear.
“You’re just saying that because you haven’t eaten real food in days.”
“Mm. Still true.”
Dinner was slow and easy. He told you the parts of the case he could share, and you told him about the ridiculous office drama at your job and how Jack had scored another goal in soccer. Aaron listened like every word mattered, his hand occasionally reaching across the table to brush his thumb over your knuckles.
After the dishes were cleared, he pulled you to the couch. You curled into his side, legs tangled, his arm draped heavy and protective around your shoulders. The TV played some old black-and-white movie neither of you were really watching.
“You know,” he said quietly after a while, fingers tracing lazy circles on your arm, “every time I walk through that door, the weight of the day gets lighter. Because you’re here.”
Your heart squeezed. You turned your face into his chest, breathing him in. “I love you, Aaron. Even on the hard days. Especially on the hard days.”
He tilted your chin up with two fingers and kissed you — slow, reverent, the kind of kiss that said more than words ever could. When he pulled back, his forehead rested against yours again.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve you,” he whispered.
“You showed up,” you answered simply.
Aaron’s eyes closed for a moment, and when they opened, they were softer than you’d ever seen them. He shifted so you were half-lying on his chest, one of his hands gently carding through your hair.
The movie kept playing in the background as his breathing evened out. You listened to the steady beat of his heart under your cheek, feeling safe and warm and loved in the arms of the man who carried the weight of the world and still made space for you every single night.
