Reid and Reid Ship Oneshots

Reid Has Vitiligo

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Vitiligo is a skin condition that depletes the amount of melanin in certain areas of the body. This usually results in splotches of lighter skin and hair.
The symptoms are more prominent in people of darker skin tones and races, but it can still present in white people and others of paler complexions.

Spencer Reid was born with vitiligo, as apposed to developing it later in life.
His fingers were completely different in color, but it stopped at his knuckles.
He had a spot around his left eye that lightened his skin, and also changed his eyebrow and eyelashes to a white color.
Reid's mouth was affected heavily too, and was connected to the eye spot through a thick line.
He had patches of discoloration around his neck, shoulders, and chest too, but they weren't as noticeable as the areas of his face and hands.

He was insecure about it for a long time, but once the media made light of it and began to see it as beautiful, he became more comfortable with it.
But even if he was fine with his vitiligo, would his new coworkers be? He doesn't know why not, but it's just a nervous feeling he has.

Gideon didn't seem weirded out by it, but he had known him for a while now. His new coworkers would be meeting him for the first time, and would know nothing about him besides his initial appearance.

Despite Reid's nervousness, it wasn't like he could just not meet them. So Gideon, early in the morning, led him into the conference room designated for the BAU. He had informed Reid that all of the members were going to be in there waiting for him.

"Hello everyone." Gideon greeted, opening the door to the room but still concealing most of Reid behind him.

"Hey Jason." Hotch replied, "Who's the new recruit you've been promising us?" He gestured to the sliver of a man behind his well known friend. Everyone else looked on curiously.

Gideon stepped deeper into the room to expose Reid to the group. He was timid and small looking, especially when you consider his skinniness.

The others seemed unimpressed and a bit confused by the new recruit that had been hyped up by their boss.
A few seconds passed the initial shock, they then noticed the light patches on his face. And then his hands when he introduced himself.

"I'm Spencer Reid." He said nervously, reaching a hand up in a small wave.

"Doctor Spencer Reid." Gideon corrected.

"Hey man." Morgan smiled, letting himself be curious about the spots on his face and fingers.

"I'm Aaron Hotchner, but you can call me Hotch." He introduced, "This is Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jureau, Emily Prentiss, and Penelope Garcia."

"My friends call me JJ." She chuckled, standing up to shake Reid's hand.

He cautiously grabbed JJ's hand and smiled weakly. He didn't like shaking hands with anyone, as he always thought it would be uncomfortable for them to have to touch his hands.
But JJ just continued to smile. It made him embarrassed by how nice she was. He looked away slightly to hide his face, unsure if she was staring at his discolored patches.

Later in the day, once Reid had gotten situated at a desk in the bullpen, he was confronted by Morgan and Emily.
He was naturally anxious by their presence, but welcomed their company. Gideon had told him to try and socialize with the BAU as much as possible to get comfortable with them.

"We just had a few questions if you didn't mind." Morgan said politely, conveying a tone that told Reid he would actually leave him alone if he didn't want to be probed. It was to reassure him. I guess, it was pretty obvious that he was nervous during the introduction.

"I guess, sure." Reid nodded.

"Where are you from? You definitely don't look like you're from Virginia." Morgan chuckled, leaning against Reid's desk.

"You're right. I'm actually from Las Vegas, Nevada."

"Really?! You're from Vegas?" Emily was pretty surprised by that. Every person she had known from Las Vegas was a character to say the least, so seeing such a well mannered boy say he was from there was surprising.

"Well, I was born in Las Vegas, but after high school I went to college at MIT and CalTech. And after that, the FBI academy here in Quantico. So I didn't live there long." Reid elaborated.

"You went to CalTech, MIT, and finished the academy all in four years? Aren't you 22?" Morgan asked.

"I am 22, but I left high school for MIT when I was thirteen."

"Wow, we've got a prodigy on our team." Emily ruffled Reid's hair lightly.

He cracked a small smiled at his coworkers friendliness.

"And, uh, I have one other question." Morgan said, worried he'd offend Reid.

"Yeah?" He replied, already having an idea of what he wanted to asked.

"The spots on your face, how's you get them?"

For some reason, Reid wasn't all that upset by the question. He was actually more than willing to explain his condition. The BAU was nice and friendly, so it seemed more like an innocent question than that of prejudice.

"It's a skin condition; vitiligo. I have discoloration in some parts of my skin from an absence of melanin." Reid began to show his hands to the two, and even pulled down his shirt collar to expose some white patches on his neck and shoulders.

"That's pretty cool." Emily nodded, "The hair around your eye is even a different color."

"Yeah, but I think it looks a bit weird." Reid chuckled, touching his fingertips to his left eyebrow.

"Yeah, but a good kind of weird." Morgan smirked.

A good kind of weird? Reid had never heard it described like that.
He liked it.