Note: This one is for Rachel (.net/u/2462982/Rachelkillers) cause it's her birthday today. Just a little something H/P, cause she's the biggest Hotch&Emily shipper on the planet :)

This is the first actually fully happy story I've ever written. I genuinely suck at writing happy stories (last time I tried to do so, I ended up killing JJ&Rossi and making Hotch get locked up in a sanatorium...see my point?) so I may have gone a little overboard with the happiness in this one, thus making Emily sound like a crossover between Garcia and a very hormonal teenager. But, in my defense , I haven't made anyone die in torturous death (except of course the necessary victims). So, this is me, you know, trying to grow. God, that made no sense...anyway, I'm stopping my ranting now.

Enjoy :)

"Eternal love is just a concept that was invented by salesmen to earn some money from selling Valentine cards" Emily stubbornly pursued her theory, while she and the rest of the team were waiting for Hotch to arrive to the conference room. They had somehow managed to stumble upon the subject of love. Reid had already enlightened them with his opinion that love was an interaction of pheromones and endorphins in the brain and that being in love meant that you felt like you've eaten considerable amounts of peas.

"Sorry, girl" Garcia said, shaking her head and making her ponytails go wild, "but true love does exist. I have a first-hand experience"

"Garcia, just because you have wild and passionate sex every night doesn't mean that you're in love" Emily pointed out.

"Good point" Garcia said, wrinkling her nose.

"C'mon, Prentiss, seriously" Morgan interjected this time, "you can't tell me that you don't believe the slightest bit in the whole find-your-soul mate concept"

Emily raised her eyebrows at him. "Really, Morgan? What on earth would you know about finding soul mates? Or do you live by the theory that we all withhold souls from all our past incarnations and that each and every one of those souls needs a different soul mate?"

Morgan chuckled. "Touché"

"Don't listen to her" JJ said from her corner, "she's just frustrated cause it's been kind of a long…very long drought season for her"

"Thanks for pointing that out" Emily frowned at her friend.

"Am I wrong?" JJ asked with a small smile.

"Nah, you're right" Emily said getting up to fill up her coffee mug, "it's probably just my crazed built-up hormones lashing out"

"Looks like you need to get those in line, Prentiss" Morgan said in a teasing tone.

"Oh, does that mean you're offering your services, Morgan?" she asked in the same tone of voice.

"For a pretty girl like you, I'll do it pro bono" Morgan pursued with the tease.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Hotch asked, walking into the room, not lifting his eyes from the files he was holding.

"No biggy, sir" Garcia said cheerfully, "just Prentiss and Morgan setting up a sex-date"

Hotch stopped in the middle of his walk and lifted his head, giving a questioning, and quite intimidating, look to Emily who had stopped in the middle of her movement as well, speechless and looking completely lost.

"No, no, Hotch", she started blurting out, "we're not having sex, I wouldn't have sex with Morgan…I mean I would, but not really…I mean, he is good…for sex, but I wouldn't you know actually do it with him cause that would be fraternization and fraternization is…bad, like really, really bad…but even without fraternization I wouldn't have sex with him cause I don't really wanna have sex with him, it's just that my hormones are going crazy and…and I need to get them under control, so we were setting up a sex-date to get them under control, but there's not actually gonna be a sex-date cause…"

JJ had silently gotten up from her seat and stood next to her friend, whispering in her ear: "You should really stop talking now", which made Emily's lips snap shut immediately.

Hotch stared at her blankly for a few more moments before he decided to just drop it.

"So" he said, changing the subject, "I'm sorry I'm late. Budget meeting"

"Are they cutting us down again?" Rossi asked, "cause if they take away the jet, I swear I will…"

"They're not taking away the jet" Hotch said, "just cutting down stuff like room costs and similar"

"So we're gonna go hippie-style now?" Morgan asked, "All sleeping under one tent?"

"Something like that" Hotch nodded and then added: "But at least now I know who not to put together", making Emily blush a flaming shade of red, while Garcia was shaking from head to toe in silent laughter.

"So, the case?" Hotch said, turning towards JJ.

As she started presenting their latest case, which would be taking them to Chicago, Garcia whispered in Morgan's ear: "We so have to do this more often…"

Emily thought that there would be no chance for awkward roomies-pairings since they were going to Chicago. All the hotels there had suites or apartments so even if the whole team had to sleep in just one place due to the latest budget cuts, there would still be plenty of space for her to be able to avoid getting into other embarrassing situations. But, as it turned out, saying that they were going to Chicago was kind of a loose interpretation. They were actually headed to the very outskirts of town, were there were barely any houses to be found, let alone hotels with big suites.

The police precinct that had asked for their help was actually nothing more that a low brick building and the team was meant to settle in a house owned by one the officers, which he now used only for rental. Much to Emily's despair, the house turned out have only two bedrooms and one common bathroom which, to top it all up, had a broken lock.

As they were all standing in the larger bedroom, looking more or less appalled, Hotch started giving out the sleeping arrangements.

"Ok everyone, we'll do this the old-fashioned way. The men in one room, the women in the other"

"Oh, c'mon, man" Morgan protested, "there're only two beds in each room. We're gonna be squeezed like sardines in here"

"So?"

"So…you know, I might roll over in my sleep and accidentally touch some things that I don't ever want to touch" Morgan said with a significant look.

"So don't roll over, then" Hotch answered him simply.

Morgan raised his hands, giving up. "Fine. But if anything happens, it's gonna be your fault"

"I'll manage to live with that" Hotch said, before changing the subject to a more professional one. "Let's go down at the station and look over what they have and then we'll go interviewing the families, see if we can come up with a preliminary profile"

When they came back to the house that night, they were all drained out. The work at the station had taken them longer to finish than they had expected and all that they could come up with for the preliminary profile so far was that their UnSub was a white male in his thirties, targeting young blond women.

They all took turns to shower. Since there was quite a few of them, it took some time for Emily to get her turn for the shower especially since, as JJ put it, Morgan and Rossi spent more time in the bathroom that any women she knew.

So, somewhere around 1 a.m., Emily finally got the chance to hit the shower. She took a towel and some PJs and slid inside the bathroom. She was just starting to enjoy the warm water when the light suddenly went out.

Damn circuit breaker must be down.

She slowly stepped out of the shower cabin and, figuring that everyone else was already asleep in their rooms, she just wrapped the towel around herself and went out into the hallway, making her way towards the front door, next to which she remembered seeing a flashlight.

But somewhere halfway through the corridor, she hit something in the dark. Something tall, muscular, smelling like soap and after-shave…and with hair. Hotch.

"Ah, jeez" he let out, as she smacked into him, "who's that?"

For a split second, Emily considered just running off in the opposite direction, jumping into her bed and pretending she was asleep the whole time. But then Hotch ruined her plan.

"Prentiss, is that you?" he asked, vaguely discerning her figure in the dark.

No way out now. "Yeah, it's me…" she said, sounding unnecessary cheerful, "the light went out in the bathroom…" she started explaining, while squeezing the towel tighter around herself.

"Oh, it must be the circuit breaker…the installations in this house are really bad" Hotch said, "I think there's a flashlight next to the front door, I'll help you find it"

"No…no need for that" she mumbled, "I'm just gonna…go back to my room"

"Weren't you going to find the flashlight? I mean, your room is right next to the bathroom…"

"Yeah, and I was wondering why it was taking me so long to get there…haha, silly me, I missed the turn"

"Prentiss, you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm great…I'm just gonna go back n…WOAH!"

As she was eager to run away from there as soon as possible, she wasn't careful about her step and her wet bare feet slid across the floor, making her land on her back with a loud thud.

"God, Prentiss, are you okay?" Hotch asked from somewhere above her, starting to walk towards the place where she fell. Unfortunately, as he couldn't tell where she was, he tripped over her and fell too, landing face down.

"Oh, God…Hotch?" Emily called, trying to get up, but only managing to slip again, this time landing right on top of Hotch, who had meanwhile managed to roll-over on his back.

And then the lights went back on.

As they did, Emily realized that her face was mere inches away from Hotch's, whose expression quickly became one of complete shock when he realized that she was wrapped in only a towel, to which she was now hanging as if for dear life. But his expression was nothing compared to the ones of their teammates, who were now standing a few feet away from them down the hall, as they had been woken up by the noise.

Reid was tilting his head from one side to the other, clearly confused. JJ looked incredibly amused, while Morgan looked like he might die happy right then and there.

Rossi tried his very best to put on a serious face. "Do we want to know?" he asked in a grave tone.

The other two stumbled to get up as fast as they could. Hotch tried to help Emily get up but his gesture turned out very awkward, since he also did his best not to touch any part of her body not covered by the towel, which made JJ bite her lip pretty hard to stop herself from bursting out in laughter.

"So?" Rossi asked again in the same tone.

"We were just…looking for a flashlight" Emily explained in a low voice, feeling incredibly exposed standing in from of her whole team wrapped in only a towel.

"Oh, does Hotch keep flashlights in his pants now?" Morgan couldn't resist the teasing.

"I wasn't looking in…" Emily started defending herself, but then decided it was probably better to drop the subject before Morgan came up with more of his witty comments. "Well, now that the light is back on, I should go back to finish my shower"

Saying that, she made her way back to bathroom, trying to look as if though she still had some dignity left.

The next day, Emily did her best trying to pretend as if though nothing had happened the previous night, although Morgan and, in a lesser measure, JJ and Rossi were making it very difficult for her to do so.

The only one who seamed as interested as her to forget all about the incident was Hotch himself. So the two of them paired up for the day, and headed off to the local high school, where on of the bodies had been found. It had been left in the boiler room, where it had been found by the maintenance crew.

Hotch and Emily didn't plan on staying there very long, especially since the temperature in the room was very high. They just wanted to see if they could find anything that'd help them complete their profile. Unfortunately for them, no one had mentioned that the boiler room door, once it was closed, could only be opened from the outside. So, once they were finished with their observations, and Hotch went for the knob, the door didn't move an inch. It was, to top it all, a Saturday morning and the school was completely vacant.

Keeping his cool as always, Hotch dialed Morgan to explain him the situation and ask him if someone could come and pick them up. After roaring with laughter for a good five minutes, Morgan finally promised that they'd come and get them out as soon as they were all done with inspecting the other crime scenes.

"This sucks" Emily stated once Hotch hung up, throwing a hateful look at the jammed door. "How long is it gonna take for the others to get to us?"

"At least one hour" Hotch answered flatly.

Great. An hour in a hot small room full of steam that was already making her starting to sweat. God really had a lousy sense of humor sometimes.

"So…" she said, "what are we going to do for a few hours? Play truth or dare? Discuss vicious serial killers from the early 1900s? Human rights? World peace?"

Hotch looked like he might laugh but quickly controlled his expression. "Well, we should start by getting rid of all the unnecessary clothing"

"I'm sorry...what?"

"The temperature is going to continue building up, Prentiss" Hotch started explaining, as if though taking their clothes off was a perfectly natural thing to do in this situation. "And if we stay in all of these clothes, we risk dehydration"

"I'm fine with dehydration" Emily stated firmly.

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Prentiss, don't be silly. I've already seen you wearing only a towel…how much worse can it get?"

"Oh, you just had to rub that in, didn't you?" she snapped at him, starting to unbutton her jacket.

30 minutes later, they were both left on only their pants and shirts, but that started feeling like too much as well.

Sitting on a small wooden bench that was in the room, Emily couldn't help but wonder how the hell did she always manage to get herself into situations like these.

Just when she thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, Hotch started taking off his pants.

"Ummm, Hotch…why are you taking your pants off?"

"Because it's starting to get seriously unbearable here" he answered, struggling to take off the pants that were now sticking to his sweaty skin. "Honestly, Prentiss, I don't know how you can stay in all those clothes"

"Well, I have…good heat-tolerance"

"You have what?"

"Never mind" she said, shaking her head. "the heat is getting to my brain"

"I can tell" Hotch approved, eyeing her. "Really, Prentiss, just take them off. I don't want you to end up in a hospital just because you're embarrassed"

"I'm not embarrassed" she started protesting, but gave in when Hotch raised his eyebrows at her. "Ok, fine, maybe a little"

"If it makes you feel better, I'll turn around and close my eyes. Promise I won't peak"

Emily gave him a oh-so-we're-making-jokes-now? look before she started unbuttoning her shirt. "It's not that" she said, having a hard time with the small and slippery buttons, "it's just that, you know…you don't really get to strip for your boss everyday. Hey, could you give me a hand with this?" she asked, referring to the stubborn buttons, "It's stuck"

"Sure" he said, turning towards her and starting to undo the top buttons with quite crafty fingers.

It was then that the door swung wide open, with of course, all of their teammates on the other side of it.

For a few seconds, they all remained frozen, Hotch's hands still, as Morgan later described it to Garcia, resting right on top of Emily's 'girls'.

"Well, don't mind us" Rossi finally spoke, "just keep on doing what you were doing. We'll just gonna go get ourselves some popcorn and be right back for the rest of the show"

As if though this comment finally made him realize what the position of his hands must be looking like, Hotch quickly moved them away from the buttons of Emily's shirt, trying to appear as professional as possible in the given circumstances, being all sweaty and wearing only his shirt, boxers and socks.

That night, Emily and Hotch isolated themselves form the team again, just to escape the constant teasing.

The two of them settled in the girls' bedroom, trying to work out their profile some more. At some point, Emily got up to get some pictures of the crime scene she had taken out of her bag. As she was standing, looking at the pictures in her hands, Hotch slowly walked up to where she was and stood behind her, glancing at the images over her shoulder. He had done this so quietly that she hadn't even noticed it until the scent of his after-shave hit her nostrils with full force. She immediately felt a clenching sensation in the pit of her stomach.

Oh, damn you hormones, damn you. Self-control, Emily, self-control. You can do it. Just think of something else…ummm…Strauss in tongues, sumo-wrestlers belly-dancing, drag-queen Morgan, nuclear fusion, global warming…oh, crap, not working! Don't do it Emily, you'll regret it…Oh, to hell with it!

She turned around quickly, not giving Hotch any time to react, and landed one strong, passionate kiss on his lips, pushing him against the wall that was behind them.

She could just imagine the others walking in on them now. Oh, the laugh they would all have…

But no one walked in. And Hotch wasn't breaking the kiss either. If anything, he deepened it, turning her around in a way that she was the one pressed against the wall now.

Damn… boss-man likes it rough in and out of the office…oh, shut up brain!

She twisted her hands in his hair, grabbing handfuls of it. It was so strong but yet soft and it smelled so good. He smelled so good.

When he started moving his lips downwards to her neck, landing small kisses on her jaw and chin, Emily finally managed to speak, although her words did come out half-stranded by the moans.

"This…is…really wrong" she muttered, "we should…probably…stop. Or not…but you…are my…oh, my…my boss…and the…oh, dear…agents aren't…supposed to…"

"Emily, seriously" Hotch stopped her ranting, giving her a serious, boss-like look, "shut up"

And then he started kissing her again.