stepdad!hotch fic snippet under the cut: 🩷🩷
A ‘sorry’ is muffled into Aaron’s tear-stained tee shirt as his firm but gentle hand on your back reminds you to breathe, and when he clutches you closer to his chest, he feels his heart shatter into a million pieces. “Shhh,” he soothes. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. Tell me what happened. I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere.”
It was as if your brain had been waiting on those words - for Aaron’s permission to open the floodgates – and 10 minutes later, you still weren’t done.
“Aaron, I-” you stutter, clutching onto the bottom of his shirt, voice cracked and raspy from crying. “I just don’t know why he would do that to me. He told me he would wait until I was ready! And physically? I felt ready, I really did. But mentally? I knew, I knew I couldn’t have sex with him. God, I’m so stupid! I should have just done it and got it over with. No one will ever want to have sex with a fucking twenty-four-year-old virgin!”
Aaron peers down at you, and with the most stoic face you’ve ever seen, asks “Want me to go kick his ass?” It shouldn’t make you laugh, not when you’re so heartbroken, but it does; it makes you belly laugh, and now you’re crying for a completely different reason.
Aaron grins, and as he listens to you laugh in his arms for the first time all night, he doesn't think he’s heard a more beautiful sound in his life. Kissing your hair, he moves his hand to your leg, rubbing soft circles there. “I wouldn’t do that in fear of losing my job,” he chuckles, tilting your head up to meet his eyes, “but I am serious, angel.” Brushing your hair out of your face, he speaks again, and when he does, his voice is softer than before. “There is nothing wrong with you for waiting - nothing at all. The right man, or woman, for that matter, won’t care if you’ve had sex yet or not. Virginity is just a social construct and means nothing, I promise. When you do find that person, they will love you unconditionally and treat you like a queen because you deserve nothing less than that, okay?”
You don't realize it until now - until you wrap your arms around his neck and pull him closer - that you’ve been subconsciously touching him this entire time. From his arms to his chest, your hands have been touching and caressing every inch of his body you could get your hands on. You told yourself the only reason you were touching him was because he made you feel comfortable, safe even, but if you were honest with yourself you knew there was a bigger reason.