Chapter Text
It had been a tough few days. As the plane leveled out and its passengers settled down Derek made himself comfortable in the seat he’d picked at one of the tables. The BAU team was finally going back to Quantico after an intense 12 hour manhunt for a young unsub who’d tried to finish what Jeffrey Dahmer started, delusional enough to believe he was the reincarnation of said man.
The images of the desecrated bodies of those poor young black men were ingrained in Derek’s visual memory and he didn’t want to deal with that at the moment. The fact that the unsub had actually poured acid into their brain to-…
No. Derek didn’t want to think about that. He just wanted to get back home, go for a run with his dog and have a quiet night in. Hotch had already granted the whole team tomorrow off so he didn’t have to worry about getting up early.
Derek looked around the plane, making sure no one wanted his attention before he put his headphones on and leant back in his seat, hoping to get some rest before they landed. As he usually had shuffle activated and didn’t really care what exactly he listened to he simply clicked play.
A couple seconds after the music had started it was interrupted by the all too familiar sound of a record skipping. Derek instantly sat up straight and furrowed his thick eyebrows.
“Not today, Morgan.”
Derek closed his eyes and the need to strangle something washed over him. Son of a bitch.
He was just about to rip his headphones off and spend the rest of the flight making life hell for a certain Dr. Spencer Reid when the voice continued calmly.
“Just hear me out. I’m not going to scream. I promise.”
Derek paused.
“Trust me. Please.”
Derek slowly sank back against the seat again but simultaneously cast a venomous glare in Spencer’s direction, as if he didn’t trust either him or the voice in his ear. Derek was now convinced that Spencer had sat down diagonally to him on the other side of the aisle to be able to watch his reactions. At the moment the boy looked like he was sleeping but there was no way in heaven or hell that Derek was going to buy that now.
After a short pause, as if to give Derek the chance to opt out, the voice of Spencer continued in his ear:
“Humour me. Now, sit back, relax and let me just talk.”
Derek folded his arms across his chest and rolled his eyes, thinking Spencer did enough of that as it was. However, he still didn’t take the headphones off, having to admit that he was at least a little bit curious as to what this was about.
If this was just Spencer’s way to entice him before cutting the sound off with a loud unexpected noise he’d be so angry. From the calm and collected way Spencer was speaking he guessed he wouldn’t though. The first time he’d done this during their pranking war he’d actually sounded upset and frustrated, properly out for revenge.
“So, do you know what ASMR is?”
Derek let out an exaggerated sigh and answered in his head. ‘No, but I bet you’ll give me a fully detailed description I won’t even be able to fully understand.’
“It stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. Let me explain.”
Derek smiled at how predictable that had been.
“The definition of the phenomenon is under debate and not fully established yet but it’s a perceptual phenomenon either way. You could say that it’s that tingly feeling you get in your head, neck, back and/or other parts of the body when your mind is subjected to certain stimuli. It can be visual, tactile, olfactory or cognitive but I’d guess auditory is the one you’d respond to best since you’re fond of music. I’m sure you’ve gotten goose bumps from listening to music plenty times before?”
The question was rhetorical and of course the recording didn’t actually expect an answer but Derek still found himself nodding slightly. He certainly had felt that before. He just had no idea there was an actual name for the sensation.
The voice continued to ramble on about how the phenomenon hadn’t been tested enough to give any proper facts or statistics on the effects, causes or how it worked neurologically. There were apparently a substantial number of personal stories and communities who vouched for the positive effects of inducing the feeling regularly could have. Some claimed it had cured conditions like insomnia or anxiety. The evidence was not enough to come to any real conclusion on the actual effects and applications (as Spencer said “the plural of anecdote is not data”) but it made it an interesting phenomenon to be looked into and studied.
In all fairness this was surprisingly nice. What Spencer was saying was interesting enough and he was using a pleasant tone of speaking in contrast to his normal fast pace where he’d struggle to let everything tumble out of his mouth before anyone got fed up with him and told him to be quiet. It was probably a byproduct of the bullying he suffered during his school days. Derek furrowed his eyebrows and wondered just how many times Spencer had been told to shut up when he was in the middle of a sentence and made a mental note to let the genius finish his thoughts a bit more often.
“-you don’t mind I’m going to try it on you right now. All right?”
Derek was suddenly brought out of his thoughts. Wait, try what? What was Spencer going to do? In fact, what could the genius do through a couple of headphones?
His eyes flickered over to the actual person sitting just a couple of feet away from himself. He still looked like he was sleeping. Maybe he’d actually fallen asleep by now? Derek didn’t trust him still.
Again he decided not to move and just listen as he heard something that sounded like Spencer shuffling around and moving the microphone. There was a click and suddenly a soft white background noise that Derek hadn’t even noticed before was gone. He realized that meant Spencer must have shut off the microphone he was using.
The silence in its wake was almost strangely deafening. Derek braced himself as he expected the worst. Screaming, high pitched electronic notes, those awful sounds modems used to make, whatever!
“So”, came Spencer’s voice again and Derek jumped slightly in his seat. “There we go.” He hadn’t expected it since the quiet buzzing was gone and he hadn’t realized another microphone had been switched on since it was still quiet in the background.
It wasn’t just that though. It was also the fact that Spencer was whispering now for some reason. His voice had gone soft and would have been barely audible if it wasn’t for the fact that the sound levels had been adjusted so that he was heard properly.
“This obviously is a more expensive piece of equipment. You can probably tell”, Spencer’s voice continued to whisper in his ear. A shiver actually went down Derek’s spine and he wasn’t sure if it was because of ASR-whatever or the fact that the sound quality made it sound like Spencer was actually right in front of him, or possibly behind him. He wasn't sure which thought made him feel most uncomfortable.
“Not only that. You might also notice that it’s so sensitive it doesn’t just pick up on my voice. Anything that makes the slightest sound in here… you will hear.”
Just as Spencer had said that he stopped to take a breath. The hair on Derek’s neck stood on end and his eyes went wide as he realized just what he had meant by that. Over the gentle hum of the plane’s engine he could hear, as if played in slow motion to him, the minute sounds Spencer’s lips made as they parted, drew in a gentle breath of air, closed and his tongue moved as he swallowed. He had to close his eyes and swallow himself as he could see in his mind’s eye how Spencer moved his lips slowly, only inches from his face. The perfect sound quality made it all too real.
Derek ran a hand across his face and then let his eyes slide over to where the young doctor now was sitting and reading calmly. His eyes flickered up from the book for just a second and then concentrated on the page again, a miniscule smile now present on his lips.
Derek instantly regretted looking at his lips as the caressing whisper in his ear told him:
“I’m whispering because it’s a common stimulus to be reported as inducing ASMR. Perhaps it’s because it feels up close and personal?” There was a pause and Derek could hear what he guessed was the sound of Spencer pursing his lips before opening his mouth again with a wet sound. “…maybe more… intimate?”
The next shiver felt like it went straight through his soul and down through his stomach as Derek actually could hear the smile on Spencer’s lips before he heard it in his voice. He could hear the slick sound as Spencer’s lips slid off his teeth and stretched into a wide smirk, his tongue clicking softly.
“Do you feel it yet?”, came Spencer’s humorous whisper along with more agonizingly wonderful tingles.