#jo :star emoji: (im on my laptop im sorry)

[sighmurderbot]

What’s In A Name?

Hello everyone! This is a quick and pure blurb of Spencer and Penelope being the besties we all know they are! It is a gift for the wonderful and lovely @joodeduarte who I adore and I hope it makes her smile. Happy [REDACTED FOR PRIVACY], you wonderful person!

Rating: G

Wordcount: 866

Pairing: None! 

The murderers and psychopaths had taken a break, apparently, and the BAU was having a much needed in-office paperwork day. Penelope was cheerfully tapping away on her personal laptop, mid-2000s music blaring, when the door to her office creaked open. Glancing behind her, she broke into a grin.

“Boy wonder!” she exclaimed, setting her laptop aside and pausing the music. Her eyes dropped to the box in his hands. “Boy wonder with gifts?”

Spencer raised the box with a smile.

“What offerings have you brought to lay before your queen, oh mortal genius?” Penelope asked, sitting prim and proper in her seat as he approached.

“Uh, strawberry and cream cheese stuffed croissant,” he answered, handing her the pastry box and leaning on the desk to the side. 

Penelope’s bright pink lips curved into an excited ‘o’ as she grabbed the box and opened it. The warm scene of fresh pastry and berries and sugar wafted into the air. She pressed a hand over her chest.

“Oh, Spencer, I love you. Our love is pure and sweet and-”

The rest of her sentence was muffled as she took a bite. Spencer grinned, all bright teeth and lopsided angles.

“Mmm, you’re still here,” Penelope managed to get out around the pastry. She set the box aside with a longing glance. “This is not just an offering to your goddess.”

She swallowed and gave Spencer a sunny smile. 

“What can I do for you?”

Spencer’s tongue flicked out to wet his lips as he glanced to the floor, feet shuffling a little.

“Well, I need a favor. If you can.”

“For you, my love, anything. Name it.”

Spencer’s lips twitched and he nodded a little.

“When we get called away on cases, could you...kittensit for me?”

Penelope’s jaw dropped.

“Kittensit?”

Spencer nodded.

“Like babysit, but-”

“But with a kitten, yes.”

“Your kitten?”

“My kitten.”

“Your kitten that is yours?”

Spencer chuckled.

“My kitten that is mine.”

Penelope stood, hands spread wide and excitement lighting her face.

“Spencer Reid, you have a kitten? When did you get a kitten? How could you withhold this information from me?”

Spencer opened his arms, giving her permission to hug him. She did, more gently than she would other team members, but still with all her patented Garcia enthusiasm. Spencer spoke once she pulled away.

“Well, it’s not really withholding. I just got her last night, and I came straight here off the elevator.”

“How old is she? What color? How did you get a kitten?”

“Well, in order: the vet says she’s ten weeks old, she’s black except in the sun when she’s a very dark, coffee brown, and I found her abandoned outside my apartment building.”

Penelope took his hand and pulled him over to a spare seat, perching on her own once he was settled.

“Tell me everything. Have you named her?”

Spencer shrugged with a smile.

“There’s not really a lot more to tell. I found her outside, she had no collar, there are no missing kitten posters in my neighborhood and no one in my building owns a pet because they aren’t allowed-”

Penelope gasped.

“Spencer Walter Reid, are you...breaking the rules?”

He looked sheepish.

“Maybe?”

A grin spread across his companion’s face.

“That’s my boy genius! Now, the name.”

“Well, I was going to name her Ichabod if she was a male, but given that she is not…”

Spencer let a brief silence fall before speaking.

“Demeter.”

“Demi, for short?” Penelope asked instantly. Spencer’s brow wrinkled in confusion.

“I mean, I suppose so. Is it too long of a name?”

“No, not at all! It’s very cute. Is she named after the greek goddess?”

Spencer gave her an enigmatic smile.

“Not directly.”

Leaning forward, Penelope fixed him with a searching look.

“It’s not from the Cats musical, is it?” she asked finally, wincing as if preparing herself for bad news.

“The what?”

“Oh, thank Zeus, Apollo, and Aphrodite.”

She sat back, relieved.

“Where’s it from?”

“Can’t I just name my cat?”

“You could, but you’re Doctor Spencer Reid. You consume books faster than fire. Where’s her name from?”

Spencer raised his hands in mock surrender. 

“Alright, you got me. She’s named after a cat in a poem by T.S. Elliot.”

Penelope blanched, and Spencer quickly shifted from happy to worried.

“Penelope?”

Spinning in her chair, the technical analyst’s fingers flew across her keyboard. Pulling up a webpage, she silently pointed to it. Spencer stood and leaned over her to read it.

“Cats is a sung-through musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber,” he read. “based on the 1939 poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by…”

His voice trailed off, and Penelope picked up.

“T.S. Elliot.”

They stared at the webpage in silence.

“...is it really that bad?” Spencer asked finally, hope tinging his tone.

Penelope glanced up at him with ‘really?’ written all over her face, and the next moment she had a clip from the movie pulled up and playing. 

“So…” He said as the clip concluded. “Name change?”

“Name change,” Penelope agreed wholeheartedly. 

They shared a laugh as Spencer pulled his chair up next to her and they began to brainstorm.