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“Hey Dad?” Jack sidled up to his dad’s side in his pyjamas to where Hotch was sitting on the couch typing on a beat-up laptop.
Hotch closed the lid and turned to his son, a small smile on his face, “Yeah buddy?”
Jack held up his iPad, the one Hotch bought him so they could communicate on through Messenger. Since he was away so often, Jack could text him whenever he felt lonely and immediately get to his father. JJ’s brilliant idea, not his.
“Can you buy Minecraft please? It’s on sale and I think it’s be pretty cool.” The boy handed over the iPad all too enthusiastically, eyes shining in hope. He squeezed into the small space between his father and the arm of the couch just to watch what he was doing. Hotch surveyed the screen, looking at the fifteen dollars he’d have to spend and the account he’d have to set up so the kid could get something called skins too.
“Are you sure, buddy?” Hotch turned to his son who was bouncing excitedly beside him. He hadn’t been this excited in a long time. Losing two of his mother figures had caused a toll on the poor boy.
“Yeah, Dad!” Jack pressed into one of the photos provided in the app store and scrolled through them, explaining how the game works and that it’s endless, so Hotch wasn’t wasting his money. Only when he explained that only people you invite to your Minecraft worlds or are friends with did Hotch sigh dramatically and reach for his wallet on the table.
Paying for the game was easy, just a few numbers and a confirmation email. But setting up the account was not so easy. Jack and Hotch spent close to an hour just trying to figure out what to do. First they tried making a Minecraft account through the app on the iPad, but that led them to a website instead. Then Hotch opened the website in his laptop, but it wasn’t the right one due to the string of numbers at the end. It sent them down a rabbit hole of tens of emails, almost thirty websites opened (mainly the same one opening and closing again), plus four text messages confirming the account. But finally, after all of that effort, “dreamscape_404” was made. It wasn’t the best of usernames, but it was Jack’s, and he loved it.
“Thank you so much Dad!” He wrapped his arms around the tired old man to which Hotch returned the hug. He was happy his kid was too. They stayed like that for a moment before Hotch glanced at the time and told Jack to go to bed, seeing as it was 10pm. The kid was too excited to even power off his iPad before kissing his father on the cheek and rushing off to sleep.
--- ✪ ---
It was a rare day, Hotch having the day off to just spend a weekend with his son. Well, if a certain block game wasn’t sitting in between him and Jack.
“Buddy, don’t you think it’s time to hop off of that?” Hotch took a sip of his coffee, eyeing the kid across the kitchen table. His lunch sat almost untouched next to the boy. And it was his favourite; a big beef pot pie slice and wedges Hotch himself made. Jack had only poked at a few of the wedges before wiping his hands and returning to his iPad.
The boy looked down at the food, then back up to the iPad. A look of guilt crossed his face, so he saved his work, logged out and put the iPad on the chair next to him. Jack picked up a fork and immediately started digging into the food. Hotch smiled a little at his son’s sudden hunger. Who knew that if you stopped staring at a screen, you could pay attention to your body’s cues.
Only when a few chips remained on the plate did Jack speak up, barbecue sauce lining his lips, “Dad, I missed this.”
The words were like a sucker-punch to Hotch’s stomach. His stomach churned, the coffee all of a sudden tasting bitter on his lips. The man swallowed and smiled.
“I do too, buddy.”
“Can I teach you how to play Minecraft?” Jack looked up with hopeful eyes, only to be met by confusion. He continued with his head down, “You know, so that we can play together? My friends didn’t get the sale, so they don’t have the game yet. I have no one to play with at the moment.”
Now that hit like a knife to the heart. Jack always seemed to talk so positively about his social life, about his friends and soccer teammates. But now he sounded so sad, upset that no one could play. Hotch fiddled with his fork for a moment, debating. He had seen the price a few weeks ago when paying for the discounted version. It was close to forty dollars, money which he couldn’t get back no matter if he tried refunding the game. Besides, wouldn’t he need to set up an account himself?
But looking at his son’s hopeful expression, he couldn’t say no.
“Yeah, you can.” He gave in after only a second, smiling at his son’s enthusiasm, “But in a couple of days. I still need to set up my account alongside my other paperwork.”
Jack basically jumped up from his chair to go hug his dad. Hotch had to put down the coffee incredibly quickly as to not spill it all over the table.
Hotch patted Jack on the back when the hug was over, standing so he could clear the table, “Now go get dressed. The go-kart track isn’t going to wait for us.”
--- ✪ ---
The plane was flying steadily through the air. They were returning from a particularly brutal case and Hotch needed to unwind somehow. So, idiotically, he decided to join the Minecraft world his son was currently playing. It was adorable to watch his son’s little businessman character jumping up and down in excitement and the chat feature booming with quick messages about what he was doing. That wasn’t the idiotic part, he loved the fact that Jack was so excited his father finally joined him. What was stupid was the fact he didn’t know how to do absolutely anything. During the five minutes he had of time alone — Jack had run off to find his father leather armour — he had managed to be killed by a zombie and died from fall damage. Two things which he didn’t know existed. All of this going on while he had to keep a poker face in front of his team.
Well, one of them.
Rossi slid into the seat next to Hotch, whiskey in hand. At first, he was staring at the case file of which they had just solved.
“What a twist this case turned out to be, eh?” He gestured the paper towards Hotch, who just nodded slightly. His eyes remained fixed on the phone as he was trying to avoid dying to a zombie yet again by just running away. Rossi lowered his head so he could see the other man’s expression, which was one of determination.
“Hotch. What are you doing?” Rossi sounded a little dumbfounded at the game he was playing. Hotch never played any kind of games on his phone, it was strictly for the news and phone numbers. What was this bright, blocky game doing on such a stoic man’s screen?
The man was silent for a few more seconds as he dug himself into a hole in the ground digitally, covering himself up before turning to Rossi with a defeated look on his face, “Jack made me get it for him, then convinced me to get the game too. I’m playing with him.”
Rossi stared at him. Then at the game. Then back at him.
He took a long swig of the whiskey in his hand before putting it down and pulling out his phone, “What’s the name?” Hotch stared at the other with confusion.
“I’ve played a few games in my spare time. Now tell me the name, I’ll see if I’ve played something similar before.” Rossi rose an eyebrow at his friend. If Rossi managed to figure out the game that an unsub duo was playing for one of the cases, he could figure this one out. Maybe he wanted to play to be better than Hotch, to prove he was what the kids called a pro gamer. Maybe he just wanted to see what had Hotch’s attention so fully.
“… Minecraft.” Hotch gave up the information after a beat of silence. He then immediately returned to the game, digging himself out of the hole and turning around to make sure no enemies were nearby before punching the closest tree. Apparently, he needed tools to get better equipment.
Rossi nodded and searched the name, musing over the price and reviews before clicking “Purchase” and auto filling his information in.
--- ✪ ---
Rossi had made fast advancements in the game, much to Hotch’s disappointment. He had diamonds, apparently, but was hoarding them from the other man. Hotch was still stuck with stone tools and struggling to find iron around the village he had settled in. He had made a small wooden house on the outskirts, one torch lighting up the tiny space. Meanwhile, Rossi had found diorite and got very excited. A small mansion of sorts lay in the midst of a taiga biome.
JJ walked into Hotch’s office to see the man sitting at his desk, sandwich abandoned next to him. His phone was lit up with the bright colours of combat. Hotch was fighting off around four different mobs with the help of his son. It was his mandatory lunch break, so he decided to play a little more with Jack, since the boy had a student free day at his school.
JJ cleared her throat, “Hotch?”
“Yes, JJ?” He looked up from his phone and put it down, allowing Jack to kill all of the mobs without his father bouncing around and making them move away.
She handed him a manila folder full of the information of an ongoing case. It was a particularly violent case, with images depicting victims shaped into the stems or leaves of flowers, with their sawn-off limbs the petals of said flowers. They weren’t any closer to catching this unsub despite the clear M.O.
“This is for the Colorado case. The one in Loveland.”
Hotch nodded as she continued talking, “Also, the director has allowed keys to be given to Penelope to allow her to stay in the BAU while the assassins are loose. They’ll be sent over tomorrow morning with instructions.”
“Thank you, JJ.” He nodded again and placed the Manila folder off to the side, on a pile of increasing paperwork due to the whole Dirty Dozen situation. He would have to do that after his lunch break.
JJ turned to leave but paused at the doorway. Hotch was rearranging things on his desk so he could read the case file properly while noting down things that were interesting. He wanted the information so that the next time they presented at a criminology class in yet another college, he could talk about this kind of phenomenon.
“What are you thinking?” Hotch spoke up upon not hearing his door close, as he was shuffling for a pen in the bottom drawer of his desk.
JJ was silent for a moment more before speaking up:
“Was that—”
“That wasn’t—”
They looked at each other stunned. They had tried asking each other the same question just in different formats.
“Minecraft?”
“Minecraft.”
Hotch sighed as JJ giggled a little, craning her neck a little to see his screen again. He was now safe from the mobs, but his son still circled his character in protection, waiting for his dad to come back. It was adorable to watch this little block character jumping around on her boss’s screen.
“Don’t worry, Henry likes to play multiplayer with Will almost every night. I understand the struggle,” JJ smiled warmly at the man in front of her, arms crossed loosely. He sent her a sympathetic smile while she exited the office. The door closed quietly behind her, leaving Hotch to his now soggy sandwich.
--- ✪ ---
JJ had managed to find her way into the Minecraft server, probably due to Rossi telling her the server IP address. She set up her house a little back from the beach the village had spawned next to. It was a pretty little cottage with dogs roaming around in the front garden, cut off by dark fences.
She was sat next to Penelope in the woman’s lair. Open on her laptop was Minecraft. Her mouse swivelled on the glossy desk as JJ scavenged around for seeds in the grass behind her house. Penelope was focused on organising information in other cases through ViCAP and international files and didn’t notice the small bleeps from JJ’s laptop as she herded sheep towards the house. She was trying to pull together a wool farm so she could gift some red wool to Jack as he needed it for a castle he was building. It was a gesture meant to uplift the boy after he failed a test last week.
“Hey JJ?” Penelope spun around in her chair to ask the woman a question with a flourish of her pink fuzzy pen, but paused once she heard the very distinct sounds of walking on grass in one certain blocky game.
“Oh my god! Are you playing Minecraft?” The woman shot up in excitement, her fingers blazing across the keyboard to pull up the same game on her personal laptop. The symbol pulsed on screen, a small message beside the yellow letters reading ‘Awesome Community!’
“I have an account too! Can I join you?” The woman quickly put in her login information and loaded up the multiplayer screen. She turned with the brightest smile on her face. JJ hated to crush it, but it wasn’t her place to share the IP.
She shook her head, eyebrows furrowed slightly in future apologies, “Sorry Pen, this is Hotch’s and Jack’s server. You’ll have to ask them. Rossi gave me the IP because Jack wanted Henry to be able to join too.”
The woman shrieked dramatically, raising her hands and laughing a little, “Hotch knows how to play actual games? And with his kid? Ohh, that’s precious!” She pressed her hands to her heart and made a small pouty face while JJ giggled. The woman immediately opened the messaging system from her computer and shot Hotch a quick request to join. Her excitement was infectious, and Hotch agreed after just a minute later. Her smile made JJ pat her on the shoulder and point to the screen on her own lap, showing her the small cottage displayed on the screen. Penelope nodded solemnly, understanding what JJ was saying. They could have matching cottages in the woods, colour coded to them. Very serious business.
--- ✪ ---
Pretty much everyone had a place in the now flourishing village. Rossi had coaxed Hotch into his mansion over a couple of days, feeling bad for the man as he struggled to make a good-looking house on the outskirts. They now shared resources, much to the man’s begrudging approval. Penelope had a small house next to JJs in the spruce forest, with JJ’s being green and Penelope’s being pink. Emily had snuck her way onto the server just the day after JJ and now resided in her house, taking things without asking (but adding them double back). The three of them shared a farm — the vegetable kind, as Penelope vehemently refused to kill even block animals — that was as best protected as it could be in such a mob-ridden area. Jack and Henry made a castle up on a hill overlooking the scene, ruling with their only nether portal on the game.
The only ones missing were Derek and Spencer. And everyone had a plan to rope them into playing, especially since one didn’t use technology besides the mandated work phone.
It was a night off, one where they could have been going to dinner at a fancy restaurant or out shopping their hearts out. Instead, Penelope invited everyone over for a late night where pyjama wearing was encouraged and everyone was told to bring a laptop or phone.
Spencer showed up a little late due to a phone call that lasted half an hour longer than it was meant to. His leather shoulder bag was slung over his arm, dark purple pjs replacing the usual cardigan or blazer. He shambled in to see a massive blanket fort set up in the middle of Penelope’s living room with fairy lights strung across the whole thing. The smell of pizza and hot chips wafted through the apartment like an intoxicating nostalgia trip to his childhood when his mother would be just lucid enough to throw things into the oven for dinner. The smile that graced his face felt genuine, a smile that split apart the stress that clouded his face.
“Spence!” JJ rounded the corner from the kitchen with red solo cups balanced on a plate. Spencer could see that they were filled with Koolaid, though one looked a little darker than the others. He could smell the alcohol from here. Rossi really asked for whiskey in his koolaid? Bold, very bold.
“We’re all crowded up in the fort, come join us! I even saved a plastic cup for you.”
Spencer followed the woman into the fort, not expecting to see… well, everything inside. There was his entire team, all bundled up in blankets from who knows where in Penelope’s apartment. Hotch leaned his head onto Rossi’s shoulder as he stared at the game on his screen, the older man trying to show him how to craft an iron golem. They wore silk pyjamas — dark green and navy respectively — and were huddled towards the back of the fort. Derek lay in the lap of Penelope, who had her laptop propped up on his chest so she could play while still talking to him. Derek wore gray sweatpants and no top, which he sorely regretted with how much the laptop was whirring from the fans. Penelope was in a cute matching top and pants, pink with bunnies splattered all over. JJ, dressed in a bright yellow set of top and shorts, settled the tray of drinks in the middle, where a circle was formed out of a laid-out blanket that no one dared to disturb. On it was bowls of chips, cups of lollies and even a plate of cookies. It seemed Penelope was really going for a nostalgia trip that night.
Derek lifted is head the best he could and smiled at the man entering the tent, “What’s up, pretty boy?”
Spencer shot him a small smile as he placed the bag containing a very old laptop beside him. It was an old friend’s he had been given as a gift years ago. So, when Penelope sent out the mass text telling everyone to bring a device to the hangout, he searched for close to an hour in all of his books and files just to find the old thing. He didn’t even know if it had any power.
He finally responded a minute after the question was said, “Uh, I’m doing good. Took me a while to find the laptop, though.” He patted the bag beside him awkwardly.
Derek nodded solemnly and returned to staring at the screen on his chest, trying to figure out why Penelope had ventured so far away from the main village and into the jungle. JJ scooted further into the fort so Spencer could close the flap behind him, dousing them in semi-darkness from the flickering fairy lights.
“So, what do I need this for?” Spencer pulled the laptop out of the bag, opening the lid and immediately cringing at the loud boot-up sound it made. It was certainly not the best on the market, but it should handle whatever the team wanted of it. Right?
“To buy Minecraft!” Derek turned a little in the woman’s lap. He flashed that bright smile of his while Spencer just looked on in confusion. His hands rested on the keyboard, unsure what to do.
“Excuse me?” The level in which he said it was soft, but the tone certainly wasn’t. “What is Minecraft?”
--- ✪ ---
Dinner had been given out, everyone had had multiple refills of their drinks and the top of the blanket fort had fallen in on them. It was close to 1 in the morning, yet none of them could care less at the moment.
“Oh my god, you bitch!” Emily sunk into the pillows next to JJ, upset very present on her face. Her phone fell beside the middle blanket, showing her next to a very disgruntled horse that then tried pushing her into the lava puddle behind her. It was like it could tell that she had taken her fingers off of the screen. She yelped and grabbed for her phone again just to witness her little avatar burn up in front of her eyes. She grabbed a slice of pizza and shoved it into her mouth in disgruntlement.
Spencer, however, was in the mines below the village trying to find any sort of iron before his tools broke. He was slowly being taught by Rossi from across the fort, who was telling him both exactly what he needed to know and absolutely nothing at all.
“Hey guys, what’s this and why is it sparkling?” Spencer turned his laptop around to show Rossi and Penelope, only for his screen to show red and the words “Spencer_Reid was blown up by Creeper” on screen. He turned it back around after seeing their two faces and just pouted a little. The mouse came across the screen for the fourth time that night so he could respawn and get his stuff back.
“I have so many cats and wolves, look!” Penelope tilted her screen down to show Derek, who was still in her lap. Turns out her trip to the jungle was to find ocelots, which there were now seven of them roaming around her front garden. But her face fell a little at the character on Derek’s phone screen running away from a now burning house that was once JJ’s and Emily’s. He was laughing to himself while Penelope stared down in disbelief.
“Hey, why’s my house on fire?” JJ had just come back from attempting to find diamonds in the mines on an island just a hundred blocks away from the village. She stared at her screen in horror while Emily’s head snapped to her. They both turned slowly to Derek, who was giggling his little ass off from the heist he had pulled.
“DEREK!” They both yelled, annoyance in their tone. This was the third time he had set fire to something in just four hours. He giggled and turned over in Penelope’s lap, causing her laptop to fall to the floor. She grumbled and smacked him lightly on the head.
“Hey,” Hotch rested his head on Rossi’s shoulder, “How did you get diamond tools?”
The older man chuckled to himself, trying not to laugh fully considering how close the man’s face was, “I will never tell you my secrets.”
Hotch stared at him for a moment before turning his head and focusing on his phone again. Rossi smiled at him, sighing at the mini silent treatment he was being subjected to. He shifted closer to his friend, lowering his own phone to show the diamond strip-mining he had spent the last hour on. Hotch smiled a little after that.
“How did you even figure out you needed to mine like this?” Hotch wrapped an arm around Rossi’s waist to reach for the bowl of chips beside him, surprising both him and Spencer, who was looking over at the mentor to ask what to do next. The young one ducked his head back to the laptop, deciding to just figure everything out for himself.
Rossi laughed properly now, bringing his over-saturated-with-alcohol koolaid to his lips. He had had one too many of these tonight, but with the current company, he knew he’d be in great hands. Especially in the morning.
“Such a newb.” Rossi muttered to himself as he switched tabs to a Minecraft forum where he had conducted quite the discussion over how to play properly. Hotch poked him in the side for that jab at his abilities.
CHAT:
Spencer_Reid fell from a high place.
J_Jareau18 burned to death.
AaronHotchner starved to death.
PGnotPG: Guys, stop dying
3mily_Pretentious blew up fighting BigD_Derek
BigD_Derek was slain by 3mily_Pretentious
“I’m going to bed!” Emily logged out of the game and switched her phone off, tucking it under her blanket and lying down in JJ’s lap. She was pleasantly surprised, putting her laptop to the ground and pulling Emily’s hair out of her face. Rolls of sleepiness fell over the group as they realised just how tired they were following Emily’s statement. Penelope yawned and logged out of the world too. She closed her laptop lid and laid down right there, Derek hitting his head on the floor as he was rolled out of her lap.
“I’m going to crash here. I’m too tired to drive.” Spencer realised that no one seemed to be standing up or showing any inclination to leave, so he closed his own laptop and laid down in the entrance of the fort. No one could get out if they wanted to now as he was an incredibly light sleeper and would wake up if someone even dared breathe next to him.
Many of his team members nodded or grunted in agreement. They all closed their Minecrafts at relatively the same time with Rossi being the last person. He looked over his team, bundled up in blankets and looking at peace for once in their lives. JJ and Emily were cuddled up in their sleep, Emily covering JJ with one of the quilts to keep her warm. Penelope had a blanket scooped up in her arms. Derek slept next to her, facing upwards for if his woman wanted to let go of the blanket and latch onto him.
Spencer was curled like a cat at the entrance to the fort. Rossi couldn’t tell where arm ended and leg started, he was that pretzeled together in his sleep. Hotch was asleep against Rossi’s side. His breathing was slow, yet consistent.
Rossi placed his phone on top of Hotch’s. He lowered himself to the ground gently, one arm around Hotch’s shoulders to make sure he didn’t fall. The floor was comfortable enough, especially with the other man resting on his chest. His team was safe. They were comfortable. They were together. Maybe they would be okay after all.
babyyodie56 Tue 05 Aug 2025 07:37PM UTC
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MultipleAvengers Tue 09 Sep 2025 12:01AM UTC
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