SATURDAY FIC REVIEW by BOW

Acting Out series by ivor-severs (4 parts, WIP, ~10,000 words)
by Bow (bowie28)

This is one of a few stories that I can always go back to and everything still makes sense even though it is written based on only the first 21 episodes of season one. I don’t read it very often but when I do I’m in awe of how much it makes me feel.

Here with you by Morlin

Summary: [‘Acting Out’] After a close call on their latest case, Hotch and Reid find comfort in each other. Afterward they agree that the mild-blowing sex means nothing, only of course it means EVERYTHING. [‘The Way You Breathe’] Hotch is in pursuit but Reid plays hard to get, and on one fateful case an overprotective Hotch leaps in front of a bullet for Reid. They reconcile in Hotch’s hospital bed. [‘In the Dark’] Reid is feeling bold, inviting Hotch to come away with him. Hotch reluctantly accepts and things cannot be better… until Hotch comes home to the news that Haley is pregnant once again. [‘Unbreakable’] After avoiding Reid long enough, Hotch decides that during a gruesome case is the time to break off their ‘arrangement.’ Reid congratulates him on the good news but is adamant that none of them will ever break up. (TBC)


Highlights:
This story has a near perfect Spencer Reid’s voice to me. It’s analytical bordering on neurotic, sometimes so self-deprecating you have to laugh.


No, the word 'hysterics' is not nearly accurate enough […] The exact explanation is subconscious positive transfer onto a senior colleague, leading to psychosomatic manifestations. That's how it should stand in the unsuitability report, if detailed enough.

That’s Reid reflecting on his breakdown in front his boss all right. LOL. It’s naïve and unfiltered. It’s Reid, but it’s a mature, self-sufficient Reid who curses and argues and gets annoyed, who doesn’t take crap from anyone and knows what he wants, which is always sexy.


They were both hard, locked in an embrace, maybe waiting for one to make the next move. Reid realized he had to be quicker, before Hotch came to senses, pushed him away and pretended nothing happened.

Aside from a mature Reid, we have a non-robotic, less than perfect Aaron Hotchner which is quite rare in H/R fandom. This is a man with control issues and mood swing who’s stuck in a loveless marriage and not above giving into temptation, because in truth Hotch is passionate in everything he does.


Just another kind of pain. It all was not even new. He recognized the misery, the obsession. Yes, he was probably borderline obsessive-compulsive. It was his way to fall in love. 

Out of character or not (for cheating on his wife), this Hotch is still the selfless, dedicating, nurturing, protective Hotch that we (and Reid) have come to know and love. And that’s the Hotch that will make Hotch/Reid work, because they have what the other needs. Hotch offers Reid the security and stability Reid was robbed of in childhood.


It was unexpectedly pleasant being fussed over. Hotchner fussed in a warm and focused way. Agent Reid remembered his mother, always absorbed in a quiet yet eventful life going on between her ears.

In turn Reid treats Hotch with respect and understanding, something Reid suspects lacking from Hotch’s marriage.


Hotchner appeared genuinely concerned, with his touch of motherly irritation. 'He would make an excellent father,' thought Reid. 'Does Haley understand that?'

Of course being a slash story, M/M sex and romance plays a major role, but what’s so special about this story is that the author treats sex as romance. Sex in this story is never about who does what or what goes where. It’s more about what each action means to both men. It’s a total consummation of body and mind.


He dumbly let Aaron touch him everywhere: neck, chest, nipples, normally ticklish sides, armpits, navel. Reid's over-active brain was registering the smallest details, as if hoping to process them later and crack the unknown code: big, hot and slightly damp hands, ragged breathing, as if Hotch tried hard not to come right then, humping his thigh. He stroked and squeezed, as if fascinated, ribs, sides, loins, back, buttocks, involuntarily showing Reid where he was, in space and time.

To Reid it’s empowering:


Reid felt he had a body. It was a new feeling. In his life, the experiences of physicality used to be sudden, puzzling, and often painful. Most often, he perceived himself as an all-important head riding an insignificant clumsy construction, or as an amorphous mass of knowledge. Seeing himself as a pure and omnipotent mind was exhilarating and sometimes scary: the perception did not include borders or structure. 

To Hotch it’s surrendering:


As if Hotchner had somehow lost the ability to hide anything from him. As if two nights spent together granted Reid a gift of supernatural perception and there is no hiding anything from him, any more.    

But what I found sexiest is when not much is going on:


Spencer who seemed thin as a sheet of paper in appearance, felt unexpectedly heavy and massive when hugged: a ton of bones, sharp angles and hard planes desperately trying to drape themselves around Aaron like a grapevine. 

Or when nothing is going on at all:


He moved his hand to stroke Reid's bare white shoulder, cold and hard as if he had been sleeping with a marble statue. Now he could not bear to think of parting.

The writing style is another thing that makes this story unique to me. Ivor-severs’s prose is like a slide of photograph, and each one has its purpose. It’s good writing on its own. The only things that bugs me are typos and the switching of Hotch and Reid’s first and last names. Oh, and the fact that it’s still a WIP. So ivor-severs, if you’re reading this, please know that there is someone here hoping for the day this story has the ending it deserves.