Title: Traitor
Author: Pants
Rating: FRT
Pairing: Reid/Gideon
Summary: Itchy heels and eaten pens.
Notes: If you dont' want to read the previous stories in my little pea universe, all you really need to know is a bullet grazed Reid's right heel when he and Gideon were smooshed together trying to get out of an Unsub's line of fire. This is short and doesn't go anywhere, but I'll post the next part soon.

***

Reid sat at his desk, trying to focus on the report he should be writing, but instead his attention was directed at the incredibly powerful itching sensation radiating from his heel. For the eighteenth time, he cursed his healing appendage and started typing again. As soon as his attention was sufficiently diverted from the itch, however, his left foot began to rub against the itchy right heel of its own volition.

As soon as he realized what his wayward foot was doing he hissed in frustration and assessed the damage. With his head between his knees he poked at the scab on his heel and the inflamed skin around it. Looking at the uninjured left foot he whispered vehemently, "Traitor."

"Who's a traitor?"

Reid bumped his head on the underside of his desk in his hurry to rise, "Ow."

"What?"Gideon asked, sitting on a corner of Reid's desk as the younger man finally straightened up.

"Nothing."

Gideon nodded and peered beneath the desk, "What were you doing down there?"

Reid cleared his throat and reached out to twirl a pen around in his hand while he spoke, "Nothing really, just, checking out my heel."

Gideon nodded, "How is it?"

"Itchy, actually,"Reid said, as his left foot began to slide surreptitiously back towards his right one, beneath the desk.

"I can imagine."Gideon said, putting a hand on Reid's shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"Reid looked into Gideon's eyes while feeling the hand on his shoulder with every fiber of his being.

"For letting him hurt you."Gideon said earnestly.

"Oh, no!"Reid babbled, trying to reassure him as quickly as possible, "No, if you hadn't-" held me so incredibly close, "you know, I'd have something more important than a shoe with a bullet hole in it."

Gideon seemed to accept Reid's reply, nodding once and then remaining silent, staring at the floor beside Reid's foot. Reid didn't notice, though, he was suddenly distracted by the top of Gideon's jeans. He had an inexplicable urge to grab the thick denim and hold it, maybe pull it closer. Then his eyes slid up and took in Gideon's abdomen. He'd never found another man's stomach attractive before that very moment.

"Reid?"

Startled, Reid snapped his eyes up and locked them with Gideon's, "What?"

"I asked if you wanted to come to the Globe and Laurel with the rest of the team tonight."

"Oh."Reid smiled, "Sure, that sounds really good."He found his eyes resting on Gideon's ass as the man walked away after clapping him gently on the shoulder.

"Traitors,"He muttered softly at the butterflies in his stomach, ignoring his left foot as it scratched rhythmically at his right.

"Dr. Reid?"a girl, no more than 25, was looking at him hopefully and holding a digital camera.

"Hi."Reid said wearily, spinning his chair around to face her.

"Hi, I'm Adelaide Warhol, with security. We're updating the photos for the security badges. I'm sorry to bother you now, we got everyone else coming into the building, but I guess you got here a little earlier,"She brushed a lock of hair out of her face, "a little earlier than we were set up. Could I just snap a couple shots right now?"

"Here?"Reid questioned, looking around the buzzing office.

"Well, we have a deadline, we have to get all the photos in by three."

Reid glanced at his computer's clock. It was 2:45. "Sure."he shrugged, "Where do you want me?"

"Just, right there's fine."She snapped a couple head shots and was gone before the giant white splotches had faded from Reid's vision.

Shaking his head, Reid went back to his report, waiting impatiently for the work day to be over.

~&*&~

Reid sat in the middle of the corner-booth between Gideon and Garcia, grateful that all the tables were taken. They all fit more spaciously around a table, yes, but tables didn't allow for the highly pleasurable experience of rubbing thighs with Jason Gideon the entire evening. HE was waiting for his drink. He'd never had a real drink in front of the team before, but suddenly he wanted to make sure he didn't seem too young. So, he hadn't purposely picked the short, "designated driver"straw, and had, instead, ordered a glass of vodka, to the raised eyebrows of the entire team.

Reid liked vodka' it was the first alcoholic drink he's ever tried. He'd sneaked some from his grandfather's stash when he was eleven. The fist swig he'd taken had burned his throat and stomach, causing him to cough for five minutes straight.
Spencer had loved it.

Six old ties and a love of vodka were the only things Reid had to remember his grandfather by. He though Grandpa Joe would have liked Gideon.

"What are you thinking right now?"Garcia smile-whispered into Reid's ear. Reid nodded towards Morgan, who was chewing on the cap of his favorite pen. "I'm thinking we should order soon, Morgan's eating his pen.

Garcia chuckled, and everyone smiled as Morgan's slobbery cap bounced off Reid's forehead, "Hey!"Reid said indignantly, nudging the offending cap away from himself. "That's really disgusting."He said, as he eyed the slime trail it left on the table.

"That's not sanitary at all."Garcia wrinkled her nose.

"You're right."Reid crinkled his own nose and quickly flicked the cap back over to the other side of the table, somehow managing to make it into Morgan's glass of water.

As Garcia stole JJ's napkin to mop up the tiny puddle, Reid reached down to wipe the miniscule amount of slobber onto his pants, inadvertently brushing his fingers across Gideon's thigh. Reid brought his hand up quickly, tucking his hair behind his ear. In his peripheral vision, Reid saw Gideon watching him thinly-veiled interest.

Reid's mind went whirring along ahead of himself. If Gideon was that interested in the way Reid had reacted to that accidental touch, he was likely to perform a simple experiment to gather more information. That was simply the way Gideon operated. Reid figured this out moments before the simple experiment was performed, which enabled him to control the urge to jump when Gideon placed a hand on his knee, but nothing could stop the blush that crept across his cheeks. Reid turned to the other man, letting his bangs fall across his face, partially obscuring the blush.

Gideon waited a beat too long before asking Reid, "Could you hand me a straw?"

Reid waited a beat too long himself, before nodding, "Yeah, of course."He reached over and plucked a straw from the pile in front of Garcia's plate, then handed it to Gideon.

"Thank you."Gideon took the straw and pulled off it's paper wrapping before slipping it into his water.

Reid watched Gideon's lips close over the end of the straw, and his eyes became unfocused as he thought back to every other time Gideon had had a glass of water in front of him.

When the server returned with their drinks and took food orders Reid couldn't keep the smile off his face. Gideon didn't use straws.

***