Title: Planning ahead
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Morgan/Garcia
Prompt for 10 snuggles: #7 Star Gazing
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Neither the show nor the characters belong to me, they belong to CBS. Nonetheless, I love to borrow them from time to time.
Summary: Part 2/10 of The cuddling series. Derek has a plan he wants to put into action.
warnings: none
“This one looks like a carriage or something.” Penelope announced and pointed upwards.
“Not from this direction, sweetness.” Derek chuckled. “You could be right, though. Now the only question is whether it’s Ursa Major or Ursa Minor.”
“Ursa Major?” she giggled. “I’ve never actually heard someone using the Latin names. You wanna impress me or something?”
“Funny, baby girl.” Derek turned his head a little to look at her. They’d been lying there almost all night staring at the stars not really knowing what they were looking at until Derek had decided to get the book his sister Sarah had gotten him for his twelfth birthday and a flashlight so that he could read it.
Now, about one and a half hours later, they were still lying on the grass in his backyard next to each other trying to find the North star. “Here it says ‘the North Star is almost in line with the two stars at the front of the Ursa Major’.”
“Which direction?” Penelope wanted to know.
Derek frowned and turned the book looking up at the sky and then back at the page in front of him. “Left.” he shrugged.
That made her giggle again. “Remind me not to get lost with you anywhere.”
“Oh, you think I wouldn’t find my way back?” he mock pouted.
“No” she laughed, “no, I’m sure you wouldn’t.”
He thought about that for a moment. He could try and defend himself and fight with her about it. Or he could just try to flirt his way out of this. Yeah, that was the better idea.
“And would you mind?” he grinned. “Me and you lost somewhere on an uninhabited island…”
“Just me and you?” Penelope chuckled. “Would get boring soon, don’t you think?”
“So you think my company is boring, huh?” he accused.
“No” Penelope turned her head to smile at him, “you’re the best company I can think of. But I don’t think I could do without my laptop for very long.”
Grinning Derek waggled his eyebrows at her and replied: “Oh, I’m pretty sure I could make you forget about your laptop “ and any other computer in the world.”
“Honey, you’re so overestimating yourself.” she said rolling her eyes. “I would wear you out in less than one day.”
“Oh, now who’s overestimating herself, huh?” Derek chuckled. “I’m very well-trained, you know.”
“And I am very oversexed.” Penelope grinned at him and then eyed him up with a lecherous expression on her face. “And I guess it would be even worse with you, my sexy hunk of burning love.”
Laughing Derek turned his attention back to the book in his hands. Their flirting was as natural as them lying in the grass together in a warm summer’s night watching the stars. Most people thought that it didn’t mean anything. Hell, he’d thought this way himself for a very long time.
And it had taken him a lot to realize that it meant the world to him. Now that this annoying boyfriend of hers was out of the picture Derek had sworn to himself to spend more time with her and never let her slip away again.
And he had started to put his plan into action right away. After Penelope had told him that she and Kevin had broken up they’d shared his bed and cuddled “ something that hadn’t been unusual before she’d met Kevin but just seemed inappropriate while she had a boyfriend.
But now there was no such boyfriend anymore and Derek had waited exactly three days before he’d invited her over to ‘cheer her up’. That was only part one of his plan, the plan that “ if it turned out the way Derek wanted it to “ would first take their friendship back to the level of closeness they’d had before Lynch and grant him the cuddling and shameless flirting with his baby girl he’d missed so much.
And then it would ultimately take them a step farther. Of course, Derek could have asked her out right away and she surely wouldn’t decline. But he’d considered that she might need some time to get over Lynch before she was up for a real date.
When he saw her shiver slightly and rub her upper arms Derek knew that it was time to put his plan for tonight into action. Even though it had only been three days since they last had cuddled, it had seemed a very long time to him, too long.
“Are you cold?” he asked in a soft voice as he reached out to knead her shoulder and with that movement offering his arms to her.
“A little.” she nodded as she willingly rolled to her side to snuggle into his warming embrace.
Smiling Derek pulled her closer to him and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. “You know I’ll keep you warm.” he whispered. “All you have to do is ask me to.”
“Hmmm.” she purred contentedly and closed her eyes enjoying this close embrace more than she probably should and suddenly the thought crossed her mind that Kevin had never been able to hold her like that, to warm her like that.
Penelope cursed herself. She shouldn’t compare Kevin with Derek because the latter would win every time. It wasn’t fair. Derek was just too perfect for any other man to be able to hold a candle to him. But damn, deep inside Penelope knew that she didn’t want anything less than perfect!
A feeling of triumph rose somewhere deep in Derek’s chest. When he’d suggested the star gazing Penelope had thought he was crazy and he had feared that this evening wouldn’t turn out the way he’d planned it. But it had turned out so much better.
Her relationship with Kevin had almost turned what he had with his baby girl into a normal friendship “ mostly because everything else had just seemed unfair towards Kevin. But Derek wouldn’t let that happen again. They were so much more than just friends because friends wouldn’t hold each other as close as they held each other at the moment. And Derek knew that this time he wouldn’t let her go again.