good vibrations

Summary: Hotch & Morgan take the family to an amusement park.

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan

Warnings: Nothing I can think of?

Words: 1.4k

Notes: Continuing this domestic May nonsense, I just wanted to think about their family at an amusement park for a while. How cute it would be with that mix of personalities on the road and in the park and...believe me I could have turned this into a bajillion words but I kept it short and sweet.

Read on AO3 if you like! This one is short and all fluff so I posted it in its entirety here too.

Hotch considers himself a world class napper. A perfect vacation would simply involve a bed, warm blankets and no alarm clock. He can come and go as he pleases, close his eyes and open them using nothing but the delight of his own internal rhythm.

Derek, on the other hand, likes to be on the move from sun up to sun down. He wants to pack as much into their weekend as he can because they simply don’t get enough of them.

When things were still brand new, before the team had any idea that they would leave Friday night and sneak away together in a rental car to such exotic places as Busch Gardens or the Jersey Shore or Dollywood, they would make plans during the car ride. Hotch, car sick though he is, always let Derek drive. He would pull out his phone and flick through his notes app to run down their itinerary for the weekend while Jack watched the scenery fly by from the backseat in silence. The kid was a champion in the car, hardly a peep out of him for the whole first hour, and then he would pull out a book or some other quiet car game, wholly capable of keeping himself completely occupied. The last hour or so they would all be a little antsy and that was when Hotch would initiate such car trip classics as alphabet of road signs, spotting license plates until they hopefully saw one from each state (and if you saw one from Canada you basically won) or an old standby that eventually turned into arguments...I Spy.

muffin top

Summary: Derek is disturbed by his new dad bod and Hotch is trying to take a weed nap.

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner/Derek Morgan Words: 1.4k Part of: The Chicago Times Warnings: Weight issues & talk, food, marijuana

Derek rarely wears much in the way of clothing on his days off. That's just how he is. At most, he walks around in a pair of athletic shorts, usually with his school logo somewhere on the leg. He's a walking billboard for his athletic department. Today, he can't stop feeling like the shorts fit him a little more snug than usual. Walking from room to room picking up Hank's toys, texting with Penelope or thinking about the drills he wants to put his team through at their practice that night, he can't help stopping to stare at himself in every mirror he passes. Anything with a reflection catches his eye. He pauses, turns to one side, then the other, and pushes out his gut. He stares agape at that a moment, the horror of it, and then sucks it back in, sighing dramatically.

Hotch is doing his best to ignore it. Engaging in that conversation feels like a trap. He's noticed, of course he has, and the thing is...he likes it. Derek is still made entirely of muscle, his six-pack is the envy of everyone who sees him, but there's a little more rounding to his hips, a little more soft to grab than he used to have and Hotch likes it a lot.

“Am I getting fat?”

Read the rest on AO3! <3

keeping the faith

keeping the faith (2856 words) by masterwords Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Derek Morgan Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Religion, Christian Holidays, Easter, Family Feels, Family Bonding, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Christian Themes, Baking

Series: Part 7 of The Chicago Times

“You don't have to come,” Hotch says, adjusting his tie in the mirror. It's a new tie, a pale minty green offset by all sorts of gaudy little pastel eggs and bunnies. A gift from Hank for the occasion, though Hotch has his doubts. He suspects it was Derek's idea the moment he saw it and was using his adorable son as a ruse to get him to wear it. Either that, or it was Fran behind the tie. Jessica thought it was delightful and showed him a picture of an Easter scarf she had that was more or less its twin except in bubblegum pink. The only times he managed to match Jessica for fashion was when someone decided he lacked any real flair. They called him boring.

Didn't matter, he dressed it up with a nice warm black suit and a cream-colored shirt. Fetching, he thought. Not bad for a guy who rarely had occasion to dress up anymore. (His unruly hair, on the other hand, would simply remain so. He could only win so many battles.)

“My mom threatened me,” Derek replies, pulling his sweater over his head. “I'm scared of her.”

“Me too,” Hotch admits quietly with a smirk. Fran is small but she is a little scary. “But be that as it may, I know how you feel about church. I am more than capable of taking the boys to the Easter service on my own.”

Read the rest on AO3!

Had an odd, saccharine idea. Set in some sort of established Hotchgan nebulous time, tooth-rotting fluff, other than erasing Roy Brooks from the narrative and hand waving the passage of time I've mostly avoided canon.

--

Aaron and Derek get together. Aaron and Jack move in, which means introducing them to the Morgans, which means Fran Morgan is delighted to finally have a grandchild to dote on.

(This does not prevent her from suggesting more grandchildren would be even better: she makes this suggestion to Aaron, who blushes and stutters and hurries to help Derek take Jack to the community center to play ball, which is admittedly something Derek was handling fine on his own. She makes the same suggestion to Derek, who passes her Jack and loudly announces that Nana wants to walk her only grandchild to the candy store. To Sarah, who rolls her eyes and says her mama ought to wait for her younger children to grow up before she starts demanding more. To Des, who immediately spills her sister’s secret to save her own skin and holds up the picture Sarah had texted of the positive pregnancy test. To Jess, who still isn’t sure how she wound up at a Morgan Thanksgiving dinner table, but she finds herself talking about Pradeep and his job and the flowers he brings her, the way his smile makes her melt. “Pradeep?” Aaron inquires, sounding every inch an older brother, and Fran grins.)

foolish heart

Summary: (coda to 4x07 - "Memoriam") Hotch has an ear infection, Derek rubs elbows with Las Vegas royalty, and then they have a little romantic time. Self-indulgent fluff.

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan

Words: 2.7k

Warnings: illness, lots of food and some alcohol

Notes: Fluff. Pure, decadent fluff. Hotchgan in Vegas. A private Tony Bennett concert because hey, Rossi has connections and that's canon. Enjoy. Brush your teeth afterward or they'll rot.

Vegas. It always came with this strangely electric feeling that seemed to course through him uncomfortably, like the lights from the strip were drawing straight from the pumping of his heart. This time was worse. This time Hotch could feel his pulse in his jaw, a steadily growing ache that lit up the side of his face. Placing his hand there, he almost thought he could feel it throbbing and he knew it wasn't just Vegas being Vegas, there was something else going on.

It hadn't been terribly concerning during the case. It didn't distract him, anyway. That was kind of the baseline...could he ignore it to stay focused? Then he was probably fine.

But the moment they had the child back in his parents' care, the moment the unsub was in cuffs, the throb from his jaw to his ear began getting louder and a lot harder to ignore. Periodically he reached up and cupped the side of his face, let his hand rest there gently, closed his eyes and counted one two three breaths. It was making him dizzy.

“Hotch,” JJ started, approaching him during a moment of dark, the dangerous feeling his knees might buckle just barely starting to pass. “You look as sick as I've felt all day. Go back to the hotel, I can finish up here. I'm waiting on a call from Michael's parents anyway...”

“What for?” he asked, focusing for a moment on her words. She smiled sweetly at him, brushing off his immediate concern.

“I just want to make sure they're okay, you know? Getting settled.” He could understand that. “Please, Hotch. Go. I'll be fine here. See you at the airstrip in the morning.” She placed her hand on her stomach, rubbed lightly at the underside and stared intently at him until he had no choice but to listen.

for us there is no end

Summary: From an awkward dinner date that doesn't go as planned to fireworks to ring in the new year, come along with Hotch and Morgan as they try to figure out how to do something about the feelings they have.

Warnings: minor injuries (stitches), canon-typical violence (unsub mentions), swearing, food

Pairing: Hotch/Morgan

Words: 6k

Notes: Another year, another holiday exchange, another attempt at outdoing Hallmark with a sappy romantic comedy. This is for @crazinessprevailed in the @cmgiftexchange. I agonized over plot for ages, came up with about 7 different stories, and then when none of them quite panned out the way I hoped...I smashed them together into this odd, slightly chaotic, very out of control trainwreck. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

...................................................................................................................

“Come out with me tonight,” Derek said quickly, before he lost his nerve. He'd been hoping it would just come up naturally somehow, like they'd just be talking about weekend plans or something and he'd see an opening. The problem was, they didn't really talk like that at work, and he had to get a little creative. And then when that didn't work, because Hotch wasn't exactly prone to conversation when he was trying to review case files before preparing his reports, he had to just blurt it out right there in his office.

And to his credit, Hotch didn't look terribly shocked over it. There was maybe a hint of something in his eyes, some kind of disbelief at what he was hearing, but it passed quickly. He had too many other things going on to add one more to the pile.

“Did you have something in mind?” Hotch fired back, barely looking up from his paperwork. The way he said it so easily knocked Derek completely off of his game. He was just not prepared for this conversation, which was silly if he really considered it. There shouldn't have been an easier conversation in the world. The two of them had years behind them, and though it didn't look conventional by anyone's standards Derek would wager that their friendship (if that was actually what you would call it) was stronger than just about anything out there.

“No, not really...” He'd never been so nervous asking someone out, and he wasn't even sure this qualified as asking someone out yet it had been so bad. At this point he was just trying to make it out of the office without dying. He would definitely not qualify this as a date, not at this point. He blew it. “Dinner, for starters. It's late and I know neither of us has eaten anything. I bet you haven't eaten all day.”

“Yes, dinner sounds nice. I've got a call with Strauss in ten minutes, I'll be leaving after. Would you like me to meet you somewhere?” He paused, finally glancing up at Derek, frowning at the strange nervous way he held himself. “Is anyone else coming?”

“Just us,” Derek answered quickly. “Everyone else had plans tonight.” That was a lie. He hadn't asked anyone else. Hotch didn't need to know that, though.

“Not surprising, it being so close to Christmas.”

legend

I had this idea. And I sprinted it in 20 minutes and didn't edit it and if it sucks, I'm sorry but CM: Evolution has really put me in my Hotchgan feels HARD (as if I ever really leave but...) so this happened. It fits with the @comfortember prompt for today: proud. ❤

1.6k words. Cheesy, stupid, self-indulgent and so sweet. Hotch & Morgan semi-retired and freezing at a Northwestern University football game.

Breathing hurt.

Hotch tugged his hat down over his ears and pressed his gloved hands over his mouth and nose, sucking in one, two, three deep breaths through the filter of warm knit wool. It didn't sting his lungs the way the air did. Derek's aunt made them for him, and a hat to match, and they were holding up better than anything he'd ever purchased at the store. She had made some crack about how he was always cold and made him two pair...his indoor gloves and his outdoor gloves. It was meant as a joke, poking fun at the way he wrapped himself in blankets or seated himself as close to a fire as he could, but he'd never minded a good joke at his expense. Especially not when that joke came with the warmest gloves he'd ever put on his hands.

“WOOOOOOOOOOO! GET EM!” Derek shouted from beside him, startling him by jumping up and waving his arms in the air wildly. “YEAH BABY!” Hotch glanced up at Derek and smiled cold and dreamy. He had no idea what had just happened on the field, but it mattered little. He had sixty quizzes to grade and Derek had a game to watch, that was the deal.

“You see that? DID YOU SEE THAT?!”

Hotch blinked up at him and Derek knew what that meant. He hadn't. It was okay, too. He would explain that it was one of the boys Derek had mentored at the youth center, one of the many he'd helped get scholarships to Northwestern. He was in his last year and he was a stud. NFL quality, Derek said, and he was working his tail off to get scouts out, get him noticed. He had connections.

two tickets to paradise (ch 7)

Summary: Derek takes Hotch on a much-needed vacation. (Post-Route 66)

Pairings: Hotch/Morgan

Warnings: booze and sex. literally nothing else to this chapter. (not graphic.)

Words: 1.7k

Notes: It occurs to me that I didn't post the last chapter or two here so you may need to head over to AO3 and catch up before reading this one...sorry. (Chapter 5, Chapter 6) I haven't had a lot of time (or brainpower) to write lately but this fic is like a happy place. It's so soft. It's mostly unedited, I'm sorry, but either I fully edit things and they never get posted or I just throw it to the wind and hope for the best and you get content. I don't know what else to do with my brain at this point. Oh, hey, if you have anything vacation specific, you'd like to see them do...I have no plans here, feel free to pop into my requests and I'll try to make it happen. I have an ending planned and it *could* be the next chapter but I really want to sort of keep them here for a while...

Read on AO3: two tickets to paradise

“I don't think that piece goes there,” Hotch said quietly, shifting on his bar stool to get a better look. Their wide front window was thrown open, letting in the evening breeze (and the bugs with it). Outside waves crashed against pearl white sand and stars began popping to life while the sky darkened shade by shade.

“It fits...” Derek argued, but Hotch frowned and poked at it a little, exposing the smallest gap in the curve at the top.

“Not quite. Beer might help you play pool or volleyball, but it's definitely not helping you with this puzzle.”

“Ohhhh...shots fired...”

Derek slammed the last of his beer and grinned, waggling his eyebrows. It was a move that never failed to amuse Hotch, even if it did also indicate that Derek was doing something he knew that Hotch found troublesome or irritating. Without even blinking, Derek grabbed a piece and shoved it into place...the wrong place. Not just a little wrong, either. It was red, part of the parrot's wing, and he forced it in right where the beak should be.

Hotch narrowed his eyes. “Derek.”