#but it seemingly didn't throw anything off because the rest of the rows have been fine so like

[leejeann]

Look at how chunky this doily I'm working on is

It's about halfway finished I think and it'll probably feel a little less dense once it's done and blocked so it can lay flat but STILL

(pattern by Nelly Klos, here's a ravelry link)

[jediken0bi]

Boundaries

Spencer Reid x Reader

Summary:

When JJ makes an offhand comment about Spencer not being particularly fond of physical touch to his girlfriend it causes a bit of a misunderstanding.

word count: 3180

-

Ever since you and Spencer decided to ditch your colleagues for the third time in a row to watch Doctor Who at his place instead, which resulted in him awkwardly admitted to liking you at the end of the night, you two have been practically inseparable. You knew that Spencer was shy when it comes to physical affection from the start but you also knew that a huge part of it was the lack of said affection throughout his life.

Often times he looks surprised when you hug him or kiss him with no particular reason in mind other than that you wanted to.

It's like he's used to only experiencing soft touches in the context of challenging and heartbreaking events happening to him.

You were set on changing that. You're going to make up for all the people who have failed to treat him with the love he deserves.

So far he hasn't stopped you from trying either. You cuddle him every chance you get, you kiss him whenever the opportunity presents itself and the environment allows it, you hold his hand while you're on the jet. You make sure Spencer is on board for all of this though.

You always ask him if he's okay with it before. The last thing you want is for Spencer to feel uncomfortable with you.

He's never denied you though and your question is always received with a big smile on his face.

Despite being very responsive to your touches Spencer doesn't allow himself to outright ask for them. Your best guess is that it comes from a long line of people denying him these simple pleasures. The thought breaks your heart.

You two were in the elevator on your way to meet the rest of the team in the bullpen when it all sort of went south.

You were holding hands with Spencer and he subconsciously squeezes your hand a little once the doors open. You give him a smile and lean up to press a small kiss to his cheek.

He immediately turns bright red and you giggle. He's given up on asking you for their reasons. He's starting to accept that you like kissing him and that's reason enough.

He grins at you and you let go of your grip on his hand. You both walk to your respective desks and stuff your go bags under them.

Before you can make your way back to Spencer you spot JJ across the room seemingly headed straight to your desk.

You know JJ is Spencers best friend and while you admittedly had a hard time accepting that your boyfriends best friend was a woman he used to have a crush on, you decided that you had absolutely no reason not to trust Spencer. He was happy with you and JJ was married with kids after all. Hell, Spence is their godfather. There's no need to worry about either of them having feelings for the other. You're sure of it"

Plus, you really like JJ. She was the hardest to win over simply because she and Spencer were so close but she never treated you with hostility. She was kind and respectful but kept you at distance until she was sure you were right for Spencer. You would've been upset if you weren't so happy someone was looking out for him after all.

"Good morning JJ" you greet her happily.

It really had been a good morning.

You and Spencer woke up earlier than usual to eat breakfast together. He made you pancakes!

Or, at least he tried. They were a bit burned but you told him that they were the best pancakes you have ever had. And you meant it.

He, of course, turned bright red and refused to take the compliment so you shut him up with a kiss.

A kiss that said 'Thank you for making me breakfast. I love you and i can't wait to spend the rest of my life eating burned pancakes with you'.

"Hey Y/N i was wondering if you had a minute to talk. About Spence." JJ approached you with a certain worry in her eyes that immediately unsettled you.

"What do you mean? Did something happen? I just saw him a minute ago and he seemed fine" You say nervously. Was there something you overlooked?

You make a mental note to go through the events of this morning again.

"No, he's fine! It's not that. I just wanted to talk to you about how it's going with Spencer. You know, being a couple and all"

JJ seemed almost nervous.

You weren't sure what to think about that.

She never dug around in your business before and you don't think she's got any malicious intentions but it does throw you off a little bit.

"Did you have something specific in mind? We're doing great, JJ. I know you worry about him but i think he's happy with me"

You say proudly because you know he is.

He tells you every night when you two settle down to lie in each others arms to read for a bit.

That's code for Spencer reading to you while laying his head on your stomach and you playing with his hair.

You smile at the memory.

"Uh yeah i guess i do. I just don't want you to think of this as something personal but i think as his best friend i owe it to Spencer to talk to you about it"

She looks down at her feet seemingly uncomfortable but willing to go through with this.

You were shocked to say the least. What could she possibly have in mind that would potentially hurt your feelings? Your mind goes to the worst possible scenarios and it's giving you a good bit of anxiety.

JJ seems to spot the look on your face and grabs your hands.

"No, no, no it's nothing bad per se! Just something you should be aware of to avoid misunderstandings"

You let out a small breath and calm down a bit. You're still confused though. If it's so urgent, why wouldn't Spencer tell you himself?

You were curious though.

"Okay so what is this about then?"

JJ looks at you with a bit of pity in her eyes and you immediately decide you hate that look.

"It's just that, you know, Spence is a bit of a germaphobe and he just doesn't do very well with people invading his personal space. Not that you're invading his space! Gosh no, you're his girlfriend after all. It's just that it seems like he might be a bit overwhelmed. I know it's non of my business, but i think he's trying to be okay with the PDA because it's something you want. I'm all for expanding your comfort zones but i'm afraid Spence is not going to tell you himself"

She finishes her nervous rant and you felt your heart sinking.

Is that why he never asks for your touch? You thought it was because he was shy but maybe it's because it makes him uncomfortable.

Was he trying to protect your feelings by not denying you touch whenever you asked?

Or worse, did he think you would leave him if he put up some boundaries?

Your eyes are filled with unshed tears and you look down at your feet out of embarrassment. You don't want to see the look on JJ's face right now. You're humiliated and honestly just upset Spencer wasn't telling you all this himself.

"Oh. Well, i'm sorry. I didn't know. I thought we were okay but i'll make an effort to turn it down. Thanks JJ"

It's clear she wanted to say something in return but you already turned away from her to flee the scene. It was overwhelming and you didn't want her to see you cry over this.

You went to the only place you knew you could feel freely without having to downplay the whole thing.

Penelopes Office.

You knock twice at her door.

"Hey Pen, can i come in? Are you busy?"

She immediately opens the door and with it, her arms.

"Never too busy for you honey bun!"

You give her a sad smile and hug her tightly.

You sniffle a little and she closes the door behind you two.

"What's wrong Y/N? Did Spencer do anything? I'll kill him for you. I have about twenty seven different ways that would make it look like an accident! Perks of working for the FBI"

This actually makes you laugh and you immediately know you've made the right call coming to Garcia.

"It's more about what he didn't do. Pen, am i a bad girlfriend?"

She grabs your shoulders and pushes you out of her embrace to look at you.

"What? How could you possibly think that? Boy Wonder has never been happier and i've known the kid for a solid couple of years!"

You look down again with an empty smile

"Then why would he send JJ to tell me all about how uncomfortable i make him?"

Okay so maybe you were being a bit dramatic but it feels like he broke your trust by talking to JJ about it before talking to you. At least, you assume he did. Why else would she bring this up?

"He did what? Are you sure?"

You raise your arms in a frustrated manner.

"I don't know Penny all i know is that JJ had some thoughts on how to be in a relationship with Spence!"

Garcia looked shocked and it makes you laugh.

"Yeah, that was my initial reaction too"

She shakes herself out of it.

"Did you talk to Spencer about what he thinks?"

You look at her with sheepish eyes.

"I don't want to yet. I'm upset with him and honestly a little embarrassed. I just wish he would've told me certain things himself. I think i'm going to take a sick day, okay? Can you let Hotch know i'm out for today?"

She looks at you with understanding eyes and gives you a nod.

"Of course, Bunny. Take care. And don't forget that Spencer loves you!"

You smile and give her a nod in return.

"Yeah, i know"

And with that you're out the door and on your way to grab your bag from your desk.

Of course you end up running into the one person you don't want to talk to right now.

Spencer looks at you with a small smile and you give him one back. Admittedly, yours looks a bit forced but you don't have the energy to pretend right now.

"What are you doing?" He asks innocently. He must be unaware of your conversation with JJ.

"I- Uh i'm taking a sick day. I'm not feeling so well"

You try to avoid eye contact but you fail to ignore Spencers worried expression in your peripheral vision.

"Are you okay? Was it the breakfast? I told you you shouldn't have eaten the pancakes!"

He sounds so distressed you can't help but laugh.

You were still mad at him but he was just too cute for his own good.

Out of habit you raise your hand to plant it on the nape of his neck where you usually toy with his hair before kissing him.

Just as you were about to put your hand on him you shake yourself out of it and retreat it.

He looks at you with confused eyes.

"What's wrong?"

He asks you with sad eyes. He's giving you completely mixed signals and it's driving you insane. Did he suddenly want you to touch him?

"Nothing. I just- I'm really tired"

You look down at your bag and pick it up to make your way out of there.

Spencer grabs your hand and it causes you to stop in your tracks. You breath in and out and turn around to look at him once again.

"Are- I mean are you leaving now?"

He looks at you with an embarrassed glint in his eyes. But there's something more to it. He looks hopeful. Like he's expecting something.

Maybe he's waiting for you to kiss him goodbye like you always do says a small voice on the back of your head.

No, you shake your head, JJ was perfectly clear about these things.

"Yeah, i am. See you later okay?"

You say with a small smile. You weren't mad at him for not being comfortable with PDA. That's not it at all. You just wanted him to be the one telling you.

You squeeze his hand and he exhales a little.

"Yes! Yeah, um, we're still on for tonight right? Your place?"

He seems so nervous and it reminds you a lot of the first few dates you two had. He was so afraid of messing up, of being laughed at or rejected.

"Of course we are. I'll order us some Chinese"

You give him a real smile and he starts lighting up as well.

"Yeah i'd like that. See you, uh, tonight then"

He's still holding your hand and you squeeze it one more time before letting go.

As you step into the elevator you know that you two have a lot to talk about.

--timeskip approx. 8h--

You've spend all day trying to figure out how to talk to Spencer about what happened at work today. You didn't want to fight with him and you hope he's not going to try and shut you out.

All your worries pretty much wash away when you find Spencer at your door holding a beautiful arrangement of flowers.

When he finally reveals himself behind them you can't help but drag him inside and press a kiss to his lips. You smile into the kiss and it's not long before Spencer does the same. It's harder than it sounds like but you two aren't willing to separate yet so you keep kissing for a little longer before leaning back to accept the arrangement.

"Thank you, Spence. They're beautiful"

You push the curls out of his face and cup his cheek in your hand.

He leans into it and closes his eyes for a second

"Almost as beautiful as you"

It's barely a whisper but you heard him.

Putting the flowers down on the counter you don't waste a single second hugging him tight to your chest.

He hums in contentment and you melt into him.

You've missed him so much today. You weren't used to being at distance with him. Emotionally or physically.

Speaking of.

"Does that mean we're okay again?"

Spencer asks pressing small kisses to your neck.

You shutter slightly before leaning back to look at him.

"What do you mean? Were we not okay before?"

You brush the curls that have fallen back into his eyes away again and he looks at you with wide loving eyes.

"I don't know i thought we were but then you didn't- um i don't know you just left and i thought maybe i had done something to upset you?"

He looks nervous. Almost like he's afraid he's going to say something wrong. You give him a small sad smile and decide that now is as good of a time as ever.

"I didn't kiss you because i know you're not comfortable with that"

You weren't mad anymore. You had enough time to process what happened and you've come to the conclusion that Spencer must've had his reasons. You're willing to let him explain.

He on the other hand looks at you like you've grown a second head.

"What? No i- why would you think that?"

You huff out a breath and look at him for a moment with raised eyebrows. You really thought he was going to tell you now. Is he waiting for you to say it?

Spencer looked genuinely confused and upset you would even suggest such a thing. It makes you wonder if he talked to JJ at all.

"Look, JJ came to talk to me today and cleared some things up and honestly i'm not upset about what she said. Not really. I'm upset i had to find out from someone who wasn't you. You could've told me. You should have told me actually"

This didn't do anything to wipe off Spencers confused expression. If anything, his frown just got deeper.

"Y/N i seriously don't know what you're talking about. I haven't talked to JJ this week"

Now it's your turn to frown. Did he not know? Was it really just JJ making assumptions that weren't true?

"But she said- No it doesn't matter what she said. What matters is that i want you to tell me, right now, if my affections make you uncomfortable in any shape of form. It's okay if they do Spence! I know i'm a lot but it's important we're both okay with what's happening between us"

He stares at you with a mix of adoration and confusion.

"Of course i'm not uncomfortable with you! I would tell you if i was. It's not even like you're doing any of it without checking with me first! Why would i lie to you?"

You let out a frustrated huff.

"Because you don't wanna hurt my feelings! But it's okay. We're equals and we can set up boundaries if you want. All that matters to me is that you won't shut me out"

Spencer smiles at you and it confuses you. Why the sudden mood change? Not that you're complaining. His smile always did manage to make you feel better. This time is no exception.

He grabs your hands and pulls you closer again.

This is new. Not the hand holding, but the fact that Spencer is the one initiating it.

"I promise you i have never been more comfortable with a person. I don't know what JJ told you and i'm definitely going to have a talk with her about boundaries but as far as we go, i'm more than happy with where and what we are"

You give him a small laugh and he joins in.

You wrap your arms around his middle and bury your head in his chest.

"So you're okay with me kissing you or touching you in general? In front of the team"

He presses a small kiss to the top of your head.

"More than okay" He whispers

You smile and lift your head to give him a proper kiss. He grabs the side of your head and pulls you even closer.

Lips just millimeters apart you look him in the eyes and find nothing but love in them.

"Also, next time you leave work without kissing me goodbye i'll make a scene. No hesitation"

You laugh loudly and push him away. He playfully stumbles back a couple of steps and laughs with you. He shrugs his shoulders

"Try me"

You lean your head on his shoulder.

You don't even know what you were worried about anymore. Spencer has a way to make all the problems seem to minuscule. You can confidently say you've never been happier.

[fly-pow-bye]

ThunderCats Roar - “Warrior Maiden Invasion“

Co-Executive Producer: Victor Courtright

Supervising Producer: Nate Cash

Producer: Marly Halpern-Graser

Story by: Joan Ford

Teleplay by: Molly Knox Ostertag

Directed by: Angelo Hatgistavrou

Where the ThunderCats get roared.

The episode begins with a game of hide and seek. No, this isn’t a metaphor for the ThunderCats having to hide from some sort of monster, I mean an actual game of hide and seek. Specifically, it's a variation where the hiders can go to a safe zone to be immune to tagging, so there's more stakes involved. Wilykit and Wilykat are the seekers, but their sibling differences are getting in the way. I really do mean differences, too; this is one episode where they are very much distinct. There won't be a lot of "Thunderkittens" here, that's for sure.

Wilykat is focused on going by the rules, doing a proper countdown before seeking the hiders. Wilykit gets bored and goes out prematurely, quickly ending the countdown before anyone could find a good hiding spot. Wilykat wants to sneak around, not alerting the hiders to their existence. Wilykit smashes stuff, because, hey, they might be in there! Gallant shares his apple with his friends. Goofus eats the apple and says "forget you, I got mine". I think one might get the point here.

Of course, all of this smashing is not helping Wilykit with his seeking, as he gets distracted long enough for everyone else to run away. When Panthro decides to hide in the ThunderTank, something he would be around even if he wasn’t playing hide and seek, he manages to slip away because Wilykit broke something. Even Tygra, whose best idea was to hide in a pan with Lion-O because he couldn’t find a good hiding spot, manages to slip away because Wilykit broke something. Essentially, the same scene repeats three times in a row; they couldn't even be bothered to have her be distracting in a different way.

It is sort of noteworthy that it's the girl that's doing everything to sabotage the game and the boy being the sensible one; cartoons, and fiction in general, usually have it the other way around. I can't say this show is sticking to the cliches. Of course, there's a reason why it's the girl; the title should be a slight hint to that.

They end up losing the game of hide and seek, as the rest of the ThunderCats make it into the safe zone without the Thunderkittens ever tagging them. Tygra leans in and tells WilyKit that she should learn things from her brother. They do justify why this game was such a big deal: because hide and seek is a valuable training exercise. Even WilyKat doesn't buy it, though he would have preferred if they were able to tag one guy without WilyKit's sudden obsession with smashing things.

WilyKit: I am not obsessed with smashing! Hyah! (smashes chair)

See, the joke is that she seems to be obsessed with smashing, despite saying she isn't obsessed with smashing. Aren’t our expectations subverted? I don't remember WilyKit ever being this destructive. There was the time she was destroying things in Driller, but that was an episode where everyone was doing that sans Panthro and Tygra so Panthro can be slightly peeved. Here, it's just so she can be the kind-of sort-of bad guy of the episode. There's not enough time to think about this, because an alarm sounds just as soon as she breaks the chair, and she immediately says that she didn't do it. Eh, I'll give them that.

But no, it's not because of some meaningless chair abuse, it's a by some definitely bad guys. I mean, why wouldn't they be bad guys? They set fire to the Troll Village, they're using locusts to attack the Berbils, they're throwing boulders at a peaceful looking cottage, and they're bullying the Mole Master. They specifically point out the Mole Master as someone Lion-O knows nothing about, but they don't explain the Troll Village. We never even get to see one.

Tygra assumes that the mutants must be behind this, but Cheetara then sees them take off their hoods. Apparently, they needed to wear them just so Tygra can assume they're mutants.

Turns out, it's not the mutants, but the Warrior Maidens. They are so not the mutants that they even have giant text saying that they are Not Mutants. It's even made out of cracked rock to show how brute they are. Right from the get go, WilyKit gets excited to see muscular women, rapidly pushing one of the buttons and giggling with a three-frame animation that I decided to spare anyone reading this with. There are some episodes that really show off that even with these designs, they can have some impressive looking animation. This isn't one of them. They can't all be winners, but can they at least have decent characters in their place?

That is far from the end of the text, as they end up smashing through one of the walls and beating the tar out of the ThunderCats just for being near them, showing off their ultra crushing grasp, super prism refracted laser cage, and their you ain't goin' nowhere grip! It almost feels like a toy commercial, though ThunderCats Roar designs don't look like they would translate well into action figures. I feel like that would be kind of a problem for a ThunderCats revival, but that's another story.

None of this stops the fangirling from looking at these warrior women with awe. As we all know from this episode and seemingly only this episode, WilyKit likes to smash things, and they like to smash things! Who cares if those things are her teammates, they must be the coolest people ever! Even when Willa picks her up and roars at her, she's still motioning to her brother to check them out.

Willa looks like this in Roar, by the way. She even has the added character trait of only speaking in roars, having the other Warrior Maidens doing the talking for her. No bow and arrow or any semblance of a personality besides "HULK SMASH" here, that's for sure. Admittedly, I've never actually seen an original episode with one of the original Maidens, so I can't judge based on comparisons, but what I can say is that there's not much here other than that.

They tell Willa to throw these flea-bitten felines into some sort of jail for their crime of attempting to stop them from breaking and entering into their home. They need them in "jail" so they can check out all of that alien technology that's in the lair, and by check I mostly mean "smash". Smash smash smash, that's all they do. They happen to find a location, and it's very convenient for them and the plot.

They end up in their very own Thunder Brig, which is specifically designed to disable their powers and their gadgets! Lion-O tries to do the "ThunderCats Ho", and the Eye of Thundara turns into a frowny face. I would argue what a ThunderCats Roar would even do when they're all here. Cheetara tries to run out of the room with her super speed, but the Brig sapped her speed. Even Snarf has been deactivated by the magical Brig! Dun dun dun duuun! I should have brought that up ages ago: ThunderCats Roar uses that one musical cue so much that it may as well be its equivalent to Johnny Test's infamous whip crack. (EDIT: From what I've heard, the overuse of this one cue is intentional, parodying how much the original ThunderCats used this same cue. If one doesn't know, the musical cues are taken straight from the original. My ignorance should not be used as a criticism against this show, though I could see people who aren't familiar with that could get annoyed.)

The first question anyone's going to think isn't how they're going to get out of there, but why would they even have something that seemingly only affects them in their own lair? They even bring it up only to have Tygra say that he thought it was a good idea at the time. No hint on why he would remotely think that; it may as well be no reason whatsoever. "How to learn to fight without weapons or superpowers" would have at least been a decent excuse to have it.

Here’s the real reason: it’s so the...adults? Are they really adults? Maybe Tygra, but even that is pushing it in this episode. It’s so the not-so-kids can be taken out of the plot and essentially become damsels in distress, as Kit and Kat are the only people who can fit through the ventilator. Before they leave, Tygra tells Wilykat that he’s in charge. I mean, he might have won that all important game of hide and seek if it wasn't for that meddling sister and her sudden urge to break things!

Wilykit and Wilykit make it out of the Damsel Room, under orders to find the button that unlocks the door to the Thunder Brig. They have to use their best stealth to get past these Warrior Maidens, as even Panthro's super strength was nothing to them. And by they, I mean WilyKat, as most of her plans boil down to things like this:

WilyKit: (flexes her not-nearly-as-big-as-the-Maiden’s muscles) Okay, I'll challenge them to an arm wrestling match, and when I beat them...

That is one of the few lines that made me smirk in this episode. There's at least some variety in the ways Wilykat deals with the maidens. We get an admittedly far too long scene of him trying to decide what smoke bomb to use, only leading to a joke where he just yells "chamomile tea" with a title card with him in a monocle appearing, and Wilykit admits that it's cool seemingly as a way to justify it. Kind of like a fistbump joke, though without the fistbump.

He also uses rope to swing a table where two of the maidens were arm wrestling, making them fall and bump their heads, knocking them out. The rest of the scenes are essentially him sneaking around and saying "sneak sneak sneak" while doing it, which is kind of going against the whole stealth angle.

After Wilykat gets through with his masterful sneak sneak sneaking, with a few "dun dun dun duuns" in the way, they make it to the room where the button is, which is also the room with all of the monitors showing all of the calamities we saw earlier. This leads to the big plot twist of the episode: they're actually using all of that alien technology to stop those calamities from earlier. It makes...kind of a bit of sense?

It turns out, they were actually fighting the locusts, and the Mole Master turned out to be a villainous king, just as he was in the original. Driller was a villain in the original and became more of a misunderstood neutral guy in Roar, so it wasn't like knowing that would spoil this episode. As for the cottage...just guess. One might even guess who was in that cottage, too. Was he doing anything in that cottage? That is just as explained as what started the Troll Village fire. I didn't forget about that one, but if I didn't mention it, would anyone really notice?

With this proving that they were good guys after all, Wilykit's way of referring to them, not mine, Wilykat decides that maybe they would be convinced if he just politely tells them that they're heroes like they are.

Needless to say, that doesn’t work, as Willa decides to grab him and roar at him some more. Her translator tells him he's going to go into a different cage; one a slippery mutant wouldn't get out of. Can you believe being compared to the mutants was the straw that broke the camel's back?

Well, you kind of shouldn't, but it does look like she gets angry at this, which makes the Warrior Maidens very pleased! Turns out, they just needed to be talked to in the language they can understand: property damage!

WilyKit started the episode recklessly destroying everything she touches, including things that probably wouldn't be her property, idolizes people who destroy things that are definitely not her property, never changes her mind throughout the entire episode despite people seemingly smarter than her suggesting otherwise, and she ends up saving the day in the end. She had to learn absolutely nothing!

To make a long story short, she ends up pushing the button. Maybe it's because she uses a chair to do it, despite WilyKat suggesting to use her fingers, so she can keep her smashing mood. Hey, if these guys have this amazing little girl that destroys property, they must be good guys!

We do get a little more backstory, including the factoid that the translator happens to be Roar's version of Nayda, but it all boils down to; we existed, we were cool, Mumm-Ra happened, we had to disappear until Mumm-Ra was defeated. Lion-O proclaims that they were the ones that defeated Mumm-Ra in an attempt to get them to be impressed, and that attempt actually works...though they assume WilyKit did it. Because she breaks stuff!

Super Best Friends Forever Fist-Bump!

That is a fist bump, though not really a fist bump joke. Lion-O pretends he doesn't care that they decided to give Wilykit all the credit, but he clearly does and he's jealous about it.

And yeah, that's pretty much it. If there's any other positive I can say, it's that this episode does continue something I miss from today's cartoon. Why can't we have The End cards anymore? Why has it become passe to not have cartoons end abruptly?

Granted, I really don't know why "it's over" with a childish doodle of Lion-O has any relation to this episode. It could represent Lion-O's expression when he realizes these Warrior Maidens aren't going to appear again for a while.

How does it stack up?

Yeah, I didn't like this one at all. It doesn't even have a good animation part to distract from any of this. This is the first time I have to give out this rating.

Next, Lion-O loses the Sword of Omens! Oh no!

← Panthro Plagarized! 🐈 Lost Sword →