A Moment Of Silly - a Criminal Minds Tickle Fic
hello my lovely community! it has been brought to my attention that there is a serious lack of Criminal Minds tickle fic, so i thought i would rectify this situation! i actually wrote this one a few months ago and i legitimately just forgot to post it, but honestly i have no idea why because think it's my favourite ticfic I've ever written and i am still very proud of it :D
A/N: this was initially just meant to be a lee!hotch fic at first - but i couldn't NOT write a bit of lee!reid because THAT MEAN NEEDS TO BE WRECKED AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY OKAY I DON'T MAKE THE RULES
Word Count: 3678
Lees: Aaron Hotchner (mainly) and Spencer Reid (i couldn't resist)
Lers: Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid
The jet was mostly silent as the team settled into hour 2 of their 5 hour flight. Hotch slept across two seats with Derek also deep in slumber across from him. Spencer and Emily were completely engrossed in an intense round of chess, complete with glares and sighs as they routinely outsmarted each other. JJ had tucked herself in a corner, going over some requests for the BAU and quietly ranking them in importance in her brain.
This comfortable silence did not last, however, as a low giggle filled the plane. Everyone conscious whipped their heads around, making confused eye contact and trying to decipher who the hell had just made that noise.
“Spence, that MUST’VE been you,” said JJ, not entirely sounding sure herself on her own conclusion.
“Nuh uh, I’m sat opposite him!” said Emily. “He didn’t make a sound!”
“Maybe it was a ghost!” grinned Spencer. “I’ve had a growing theory that this jet is haunted, and this just proves-“
He was cut off by the giggle again, but this time the three awake were conscious enough to trace the sound back to its origin. The origin being a fast asleep, brunette man with a grin etched upon his face in his slumber.
The three couldn’t help but giggle in return, trying to stifle their volume so as to not awaken their fellow sleeping agents, but this was becoming all the more difficult as their own giggles mixing with Hotch’s unconscious chuckles led them into a moment of pure silly.
“Y’know what,” pondered Emily as she managed to compose herself from her giggles. “I don’t actually think I’ve heard Hotch genuinely laugh before. That might just be because I haven’t known him as long as you guys, but I do think that’s the closest I’ve heard.”
Spencer and JJ locked eyes, both thinking back on the time they’d known Hotch. They both thought long and hard, trying to sift through memories of mirth in the BAU and trying to recall whether Hotch shared in their joy. They both came to the same conclusion.
“I haven’t actually heard him properly laugh before either.” said JJ, a hint of sadness to her voice.
“Well, there could be plenty of reasons for this!” said Spencer, emitting a groan from the others as they felt an infodump coming. “Laughter is inherently vulnerable, and Hotch tries to keep a shield up as much as he can. As well as this, laughter is a purely social activity, proven in the fact that you are 40x more likely to laugh when in a social setti-HEHEHEY!”
Spencer’s infodump was cut short as he felt Emily reach under the table and squeeze the muscles above his knee a few times. His knee shot up, trying desperately to curl and wriggle away but the table above his legs entirely blocked him from doing so. Instead, all he managed to achieve was knocking over the entire chessboard.
“Now THAT was uncalled for!” protested Spencer, still giggling.
“I think it was fully called for!” chuckled Emily, giving his knee another squeeze for good measure. It was then that JJ had a lightbulb moment, the idea growing on her face in the form of a devious grin so obvious that both Spencer and Emily enquired to what was going on in her brain.
“I think I have an idea on how to hear more of Hotch’s laugh!” grinned JJ, ambling over to take the seat next to Spencer.
Emily caught on instantly, glancing over at their slumbering superior and chuckling to herself at the thought of Hotch being made to giggle like Spencer had done previously. Spencer, however, still looked confused and had somehow missed the cues between the girls. “What are you two on about?”
JJ and Emily both rolled their eyes.
“Care to help me clarify?” asked the brunette to the blonde, reaching back under the table to resume her squeezing motions on Spencer’s knee as the man let out yet another stifled yelp. JJ’s grin somehow widened further, her hands finding home under Spencer’s arms, scribbling and poking at his underarms through his shirt.
Spencer squealed and fell backwards, shooting his arms down and knees up into the table, again. JJ and Emily couldn’t help but tease the poor boy:
“Well, you’ve trapped my hands under your arms now! I guess they’ll just have to stay here tickling until you lift them again!”
“Shhhh, you have to be quiet Spencer! Hotch and Morgan are asleep! This is so inconsiderate of you to laugh this loudly”
“What’s wrong Spence? You’ll definitely end up injuring yourself if you keep wriggling like this, just keep still!”
“Tickle tickle tickleeeeeee~”
Upon that last remark from Emily, Spencer’s shrieks and squeals got to a volume that stirred Derek from his slumber. The duo immediately clocked that he had woken up, but made no move to stop their attack as Derek immediately smiled at the scene unfolding in front of him.
“Get his belly, the poor boy’s like a puppy dog really” encouraged Morgan, earning a string of curses from the victim.
“Hehehehehey! We’ve detracted from the original point of this discUSSION-” Spencer’s laugh jumped an octave as JJ’s hand slipped under his shirt and fingers danced patterns all over his stomach. This, coupled with Emily’s hands now sneaking behind his knee, sent Spencer’s brain into overdrive as his endearing laughter filled the plane.
“He does have a point” said JJ. “And we probably shouldn’t carry this on for too much longer as this idiot is incapable of not overreacting, we don’t want to wake Hotch before we’re ready!”
Emily nodded in agreement, and both girls retracted their attack on the youngest member of the team. Spencer immediately curled in on himself and pouted, muttering under his breath
“I wasn’t OVERREACTING.” He grumbled. “There’s plenty of theories why some people are more ticklish than others, all of which are conflicting, but regardless I cannot help that I ended up on the more unfortunate end of the spectrum.”
“’Unfortunate’ my ASS!” retorted Derek, finally awake enough to amble over and take the seat next to Emily. He then reached underneath the table to squeeze at Spencer’s knees once more, earning a yelp and a flinch. “We all know you love it, genius. You give yourself away.”
This earned a kick and a glare from Spencer, but he couldn’t mask the smile that lingered on his face. The three others just chuckled; they all knew Spencer loved the attention and the silliness, and they loved how embarrassed he was by it.
“Anyway, we’ll leave you be now. What WAS the original point of the discussion?” pondered Morgan, remembering what Spencer had touched upon earlier. “And why was Reid getting his ass handed to him? Not that he doesn’t usually deserve it.”
Another kick from Spencer made Derek laugh as JJ explained about Hotch laughing in his sleep, how they’d drawn the conclusion that they’d never heard Hotch laugh properly, how they’d come to tickle Spencer in the first place, and the plan that they were hatching before they got distracted with the former point. Derek grinned, mischief flooding his face as he excitedly nodded his head at the beginnings of this plan.
“Oh it’ll 100% work.” He smiled, a fond memory filling his brain. “I have actually heard Hotch laugh before – I visited him for whatever reason one Sunday afternoon, Haley answered the door and led me through to the living room where him and Jack were playing tickle monster. Obviously it was more of Jack getting tickled by his dad, but occasionally he would get him back, and his reactions did seem pretty genuine!”
JJ and Emily’s eyes lit up at this, grinning with fondness over at the (somehow) still-sleeping Hotch.
“So… we’re absolutely doing this, right?” said Emily.
“Oh, 100%” smirked JJ.
As JJ said this, the quartet all whipped their heads around as they heard Hotch shuffle on the sofa. He had gone from curled up on his side, mimicking the position of a foetus, to fully spread out on his back like a stretching cat. He appeared to still be fast asleep, although now, the position he laid in drew immediate attention to his torso. The four burst into giggles once more at this.
“Oh, it’s like he’s ASKING for it.” chuckled Morgan. “He’s literally left himself wide open for us.”
This statement from Morgan was more ironic than any of them realised, as that was exactly what Hotch had done.
Truth be told, Hotch had woken up to the same squeal from Reid that caused Morgan to rise. However, he had initially just tried to go back to sleep as, as much as he knew the team needed those playful moments of silly between them, he didn’t feel the need to get involved himself. It wasn’t until he overheard the conversation that followed from Reid’s attack that his interest piqued. Clearly, the fact that he’d inadvertently giggled in his sleep was fascinating to the rest of his team, and he decided in that moment to have a little bit of fun with them. Hotch wasn’t actually all that ticklish himself, so he knew he could fend off his team of FBI children very easily. It was this conclusion that led him to roll onto his back “in his sleep”, just to enhance the game for the others.
He felt the presence of four people surround him as he worked to keep his breathing mimicking that of an asleep person. Endeared by the childish whispers and giggles of the team, he enjoyed how much fun they were having, like a group of children ganging up on a very patient dad.
“So what do we do first?”
“You’re meant to be the genius, pretty boy!”
“Yes well I’m usually on the receiving end, aren’t I!”
“Don’t grumble, we all know how much you love it”
“Oh shut up, JJ”
“All of you shut up or you’ll blow this for us!”
Their petty squabbling was silenced by Emily. She brought a finger to her mouth, indicating utmost silence from the rest of the team as they obliged. She then leant over and began to trace very gentle patterns into Hotch’s shirt, just about where the front of his ribs met the top of his stomach. She slowly increased the intensity, trying not to wake him too suddenly but at the same time trying to eek out any reaction from the man.
Nothing.
“Oh come ON” she grumbled under her breath, walking her fingers down to spider at his entire torso through his shirt. She covered all bases; stomach, sides, every indent of his ribs.
Still, nothing.
“You have got to be kidding me. That would’ve had Reid absolutely convulsing if I’d pulled that move on him!”
Spencer glared and reached over to poke Emily’s side, earning a squeak from her and an elbow into his arm. “Clearly not just me, then.” He smirked.
Emily looked ready to unleash hell on Spencer once again before JJ separated them both. “Task at hand, people! You two had better behave before I ground you both.”
JJ signalled to Morgan to up the ante. He sat on the floor at the lower half of Hotch, trying every tickly method he could think of on his knee to try and irk even a smile out of him. JJ settled at the other end, using her nails to scritch all the way around Hotch’s neck.
Once again, nothing.
JJ huffed in disappointment and Morgan let out a stream of curses at their failed attempts to tickle their superior.
“Literally, how.” pondered Morgan. “I know we all bully Reid here, but I think all four of us would’ve at least had SOME reaction to that, I mean come ON”
“Well, he could still be ticklish!” said Spencer. “The nerve cells that produce the tickle response, although often found in the same places across most human beings, can be found in unorthodox places sometimes! That being said, we haven’t even covered all bases with the obvious spots yet, like there’s the feet-“
“I wouldn’t waste your time.” a low, fifth voice joined the conversation.
The four whipped their heads back around to stare at Hotch, eyes open and grinning up at them. They all looked absolutely outraged, and the expressions of their faces alone was enough to earn a small chuckle from the man.
“It was a nice try, guys. But clearly you just profiled me wrong.” He smirked. “I’ve been awake for awhile, I just thought it’d be a little bit funny to see you hatch your devious plans like that for it to not come to fruition.”
He chuckled again as his team couldn’t seem to find any words, only disgruntled grumbles and glares of apparent defeat.
“You can carry on tickling me if you want! I can laugh and wriggle and do a full Reid on you, I do that with Jack sometimes to let him when we play!”
This did not appease the team as Derek let out a grumble of “No, it wouldn’t be the same.”
Hotch chuckled again and settled his arms behind his head, closing his eyes once more. “Nice try anyway, team. It was a good effort.”
And he thought that would be the end of it.
In fact, it almost was. Emily and Morgan had begun to shuffle to their original seats, but JJ and Spencer stood still, eyes glancing between Hotch and each other. They both recounted the attack from earlier, JJ’s tease about Spencer trapping her hands under his arms replaying in both of their minds as they glanced at Hotch’s now-exposed underarms.
“Hey, Reid, you know what you were saying earlier about covering all bases?” JJ whispered in a hushed tone.
Spencer nodded. “You’ve read my mind, actually.”
The pair quickly caught Emily and Morgan and relayed their theory to them, hatching a far quieter plan between the four of them as to avoid Hotch’s listening ears.
Hotch felt their presence around him once more, and jumped slightly as Derek spoke to him far closer to his ear than he was expecting.
“Actually, Hotch, we’re bored.” he said. “And also don’t believe you. At all. So we’re going to take you up on your previous offer.”
“Oh? Go ahead.” said Hotch, not making any movement from the position he was in.
Emily dove in again immediately, repeating the motions she had previously crafted on his torso once more, far more determined this time. Hotch just shrugged, a slight grin forming on his face from the sensations, but nothing more.
JJ and Morgan also resumed their motions from earlier, this time switched in roles. JJ used the squeezing technique on Hotch’s knees that had driven Spencer up the wall previously, and Morgan tantalisingly tracing every nerve cell on his neck, digging in at the odd pressure point. Hotch shuffled slightly and chuckled in surprise, not expecting all three of them to coordinate like this. It didn’t tickle enough for him to outwardly react more than the single surprised chuckle, and was ignorable enough to remain still and smug.
That was, until, Spencer joined the fray.
A pair of hands crept from where Morgan was sat, resting in a claw shape on Hotch’s underarms. Spencer curled and uncurled his fingers a single time, the quartet watching Hotch stiffen at the sensation, this simple movement alone sending a zap of panic through him. His eyes widened along with his smile and, even though Spencer hadn’t made any further movement yet, instinctively snapped down his arms.
Well, he tried to, anyway.
Morgan was quicker than Hotch, immediately stopping the onslaught on his neck and quickly catching his wrists, preventing him from putting his arms down. Hotch tried desperately to fight Morgan’s grip, but he was simply not strong enough. The grip around his wrists and arms left his underarms fully exposed, and this realisation alone was enough for Hotch to lose his cool demeanour.
“He’s all yours, pretty boy.” chuckled Morgan as Hotch struggled in his grip, trying and failing to bring his arms down and protect the spot that had been so cruelly exposed.
“JJ, Emily, stop a sec.” ordered Spencer. “I want to see if this is gonna get him as bad as I think it will.”
The girls grinned and ceased their motions. Hotch protested, counting on the fact that he could distract himself from the one spot that would light him on fire by focussing on the duller sensations. The quartet simply ignored him, all four watching with shit-eating grins on their faces as Spencer started to repeat the curling motions from earlier, this time not stopping and slowly increasing in intensity.
Hotch screwed up his face, trying desperately to ignore how much it fucking TICKLED. He couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth turning upwards as Reid persisted, the chuckling from the four of them not helping the situation in any way.
“He looks about ready to explode!”
“What’s wrong, Hotch? Thought you weren’t ticklish?”
“Seems we profiled you correctly after all!”
“C’mon Reid, you can try harder than that!”
Spencer glared at Emily. “What more could I be doing right now! I am tickling him, am I not?”
“Not PROPERLY. You’re literally just spidering.” huffed Emily. “You’d think someone as ticklish as you would know exactly how to tickle someone else!”
“Well, funnily enough, I don’t really pay much attention to your technique when you get me!” said Spencer, an embarrassed flush returning to his cheeks. He tried to think scientifically about the attack from earlier, and how JJ had been tickling his underarms. He switched up his movements, digging in more circular motions as opposed to the spider-like movements before.
Suddenly, they all heard it again. The same noise that had started this whole debacle.
The dam had broken. Hotch had spent such an effort beforehand to stifle his reactions that all of them just came at once. Low giggles very quickly turned to howling laughs as Reid abused this new technique, finding every tiny ticklish spot and making mental notes as to where his laugh changed in volume and pitch. He squirmed in Morgan’s grip, trying desperately and failing to get some relief from the onslaught. He then tried to bring his legs up, but a very determined Emily sat her entire weight on Hotch’s legs so he was fully immobile. All he could do was laugh.
And honestly? He didn’t mind it as much as he thought it would. It reminded him of playfights with Jack, except it was his four adult children. His four adult children who were getting incredible amounts of satisfaction from this, and his four adult children who could overpower him far more easily than his three-year-old son could.
Emily and JJ decided to resume their attacks from earlier, the brunette tweaking and poking at his sides whilst the blonde tormented his knees. Since the dam had been broken, these spots also seemed to get a decent reaction from Hotch as the combination of all three of them tickling him silly was enough for him to let out a squeal that was most unlike him. His four attackers erupted into laughter.
“Hotch, what was THAT.” howled Morgan, using what wiggle room he had to find sensitive pressure points around Hotch’s neck as he still held him tightly.
“I almost feel bad for him.” chuckled Spencer, shuddering as he imagined how dead he would be if this attack turned onto him.
“I don’t! He lied to us!” cried Emily, not in the slightest bit feeling any guilt. “He told us he wasn’t ticklish, but he is! He’s tickle tickle tickleeeeeeish-”
“Oh Emily that’s just CRUEL” grinned JJ. She herself had been on the receiving end when Emily had been full-tilt tickle monster, and she knew how much her words and teases made everything tickle so much worse.
Hotch could only laugh. He would get tired of this soon, he knew. He was never the biggest fan of being tickled, but life had been so intense lately that this moment of carefree, childlike silliness had benefited him more than he’d realised. He concluded that this couldn’t be a fix too often as it would just become repetitive and irritating, he had a certain image to maintain as their superior, after all. However, it was perfect for this moment, and the four could sense it. They knew him well enough to not tease him about how much he was visibly enjoying himself, however, as they knew it would ruin the moment immediately. So the quartet simply laughed along with him and poked fun at every noise and reaction he made.
Eventually, Hotch called it off. He lay back, catching his breath, residual chuckles still draining from his mouth like the last drops from a closed fountain. He looked up at the rest of his team, all four grinning like children, clearly beyond proud of their antics. He couldn’t help but feel proud of them.
“If any of you attempt that again, best believe I’m sending you straight to Strauss.” he said in a mock-serious tone. “But, I supposed that’s what I had coming for me when I lied to four very persistent behaviour analysts.”
He shuffled himself to standing and began to make his way to the bathroom on the jet.
“Oh, and by the way. I’ve seen the way Morgan reacts when Garcia gets too close to his neck.” Hotch grinned. “Thought the three of you should know this!”
As he disappeared into the bathroom, all he heard was a “FUCK YOU, HOTCH!” and an “EMILY, DON’T YOU DARE!” before the sounds of Morgan’s muffled cackles filled the plane. Hotch smiled. He had gotten his fill of the playfulness, but he knew his team needed more than him. They were young, they were so smart and so good at their jobs, and if this was the way they unwound and found joy then Hotch could do nothing but encourage it.
