Work Text:
Dr.Starbuck223 - Status: Away. Message - Studying for Finals despite the noise. There’s a special place in hell for musical theater majors.
Bloop!
Scully looked up from her book. Only one person would have the audacity to ignore her studying away message.
10TruthSeeker13 - What are they doing now? Another Les Miz sing-a-long?
Scully cringed. The gaggle of musical theater majors who lived on her floor did everything - sang, danced, rehearsed in the common area that shared a wall with the room inhabited by Scully and her two roommates. Usually she could drown them out with loud music and headphones but sometimes, like tonight, they were able to break through the loud growls of Rob Zombie and throughly annoy Scully.
Dr.Starbuck223 -Worse. Tap dancing. :-/
10TruthSeeker13 - Bummer. It’s all quiet over here :)
Scully rolled her eyes. Mulder had somehow managed to scare off yet another roommate and now he had the luxury of a room all to himself.
Dr.Starbuck223 - Bragging again? :P
10TruthSeeker13 - Actually, I’m trying to entice you to come over.
Dr.Starbuck223 - I have back to back exams tomorrow…
10TruthSeeker13 - And I have an abnormal psych paper to write. We can sit in silence together :)
10TruthSeeker13 - You should come over.
10TruthSeeker13 - Please? It’s warm. And quiet.
10TruthSeeker13 - And there’s food.
Food. Scully realized that she hadn’t eaten since lunch and the dining hall had closed hours ago. Right now, her dinner options were a 2 packs of pop tarts and half a bottle of warm Diet Pepsi.
Dr.Starbuck223 - Pizza?
10TruthSeeker13 - Better.
Dr. Starbuck223 - What’s better than pizza?
10TruthSeeker13 - Come over and find out ;-)
Dr.Starbuck223 - Be there in 5.
—
Outside it was a cross between rain and snow and in the five minute walk to Mulder’s dorm, the wind seemed to throw all of the wet, sticky muck directly at Scully. By the time she reached his door, her hair was dripping wet and her cheeks were stained bright pink from the cold.
“Do the words ‘drowned rat’ mean anything to you?” Mulder said, surveying the wet, cold, yet somehow still adorable little Scully standing in the hall.
Scully rolled her eyes and pushed past him. “All for you, Mulder,” she said, sarcastically. “I do it all for you.”
She shook her coat out and hung it over the hook on the back of Mulder’s door.
“So,” she asked, “what’s better than pizza?”
“How ‘bout a home cooked meal?”
“Home cooked?” Scully asked with disbelief.
“Well, ‘dorm cooked’ is more accurate,” Mulder said.
Lifting his plastic water boiler, he poured steaming red tomato soup into two mugs resting on his chair. One was bright green and shaped like an alien head. The other had the Ghostbusters logo on the side. Scully eyed the plastic kettle.
“You know they banned those water kettles from the dorms because they start fires, right?”
“Yeah, that’s why when it starts sparking, I unplug it. I’m not stupid, Scully.”
Scully let out a snort. Mulder handed her the alien mug. She she softly blew across the red liquid before taking a tentative sip. The soothing warmth of the soup traveled from her throat to her toes warming her to her core. Scully welcomed it as she sank down onto Mulder’s bed holding the mug in her lap.
“Good?” Mulder asked as he walked over to the ancient metal radiator in the corner of his room.
“Mmmm, yeah. But I might need a little more than soup.”
“Ah, well, ask and you shall receive.”
He reached over and pulled two paper towel wrapped bundles from the top of the radiator. He passed one to Scully. Curious, she tugged at the paper revealing a perfectly melty grilled cheese sandwich.
“Radiator grilled cheese,” Mulder announced.
Scully took a bite. Her eyes closed. The cheese melted in her mouth and the bread mingled with the remnants of tomato soup still on her tongue. It was perfect.
“Better than pizza?”
“It tastes like home,” Scully said, mouth full.
Mulder smiled, swelling with pride. He liked feeding Scully. She had a tendency to live in her head and forget all other necessities. Her eyes always filled with gratitude when he surprised her with the luxury of effortless food, whether it was a slice of day old pizza or a ziplock bag of cold cuts stolen from the dining hall.
“What inspired this?” Scully asked, dipping her sandwich into the alien mug.
Mulder shrugged. “My mom sent me a care package. It felt only right to share the wealth.”
Scully lapped the dripping soup from her fingers before popping the last bit of sandwich into her mouth. “Well, thank you for that,” she said.
“Anytime, partner,” Mulder said, finishing his own sandwich. “You want seconds?”
“Hell yes.”
—
After the second round of radiator grilled cheese and fire hazard tomato soup, Mulder and Scully settled into their school work. Mulder’s vinyl copy of “OK Computer” played softly, accompanied by the sounds of his hands typing away on his laptop. Scully had to admit this was a much better way to cram for her cell biology final.
At midnight, an alarm blared from Mulder’s phone, filling the room with the WOOSHING sound of the TARDIS.
“Break time,” Mulder announced.
Scully looked up, she opened her mouth to protest but Mulder anticipated this.
“Studies have shown that the brain takes in more information if it’s allowed to periodically switch focus to an unrelated subject.”
Scully scrunched her face, not entirely convinced.
“If you take a break, you get chocolate,” he emphasized ‘chocolate’ in a high singsongy tone.
Scully cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “Dark or milk?”
Mulder clutched his heart over-dramatically, “Scully, you wound me. I know you like your chocolate dark, just like your music.”
“Damn right,” Scully said, slamming her text book shut.
In true Mulder fashion, the study break was more elaborate than he originally led on. It involved two downloaded episodes of The Simpsons, cold milk, and something Mulder called ‘computer s’mores’ which cooked on a paper towel on top of his laptop as they watched the first Simpsons episode (“Cape Feare” - Scully’s favorite).
“I’m afraid to ask how you figured out that you could make s’mores on your computer,” Scully said as Sideshow Bob stepped into yet another rake and grimaced.
“It’s the essence of science, Scully,” Mulder said, handing her a gooey treat. “Ask an impertinent question and you’re on your way to a pertinent answer.”
“And that impertinent question was, ’I wonder if I can make s’mores on the hot part of my laptop?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“You realize could’ve made them on the radiator like the grilled cheese.”
“But I already knew I could do that.”
“So there’s no point if it’s not impertinent?”
“Not if you want to discover something new. Anything worth doing requires some level of impertinent risk.”
Mulder reached out and wiped a smudge of chocolate from the corner of Scully’s mouth. Scully was suddenly very aware at how close their faces were. Keeping eye contact, Mulder sucked the chocolate off his thumb, and stared at her. Scully swallowed hard, large shards of gram crackers scratching the back of her throat.
Shit! she thought, He wants to kiss me.
Time slowed. Scully’s brain went into panic mode, thinking a thousand thoughts a second, trying to come up with the best way to avoid Mulder’s lips.
Cough? Sneeze? Fake a bee-sting? He can’t kiss me. He can’t kiss me. No matter how much I want it…wait, Shit! I *want* Mulder to kiss me. I want to kiss Mulder. This is bad. This is super bad…Why? Why? Because it’s Mulder, Spooky Mulder he’s…what? Adorable? Sweet? Super nice and fun and always has your back and always respects you and does super nice things like make you grilled cheese, saves you from frat parties and holds your hair back when you’re sick drunk? His lips are pretty…I’ll bet he tastes like marshmallows…he’s still staring at me…I’m staring at him. Fuck it, Dana. Stop thinking. Go for it. Just fucking go for it.
And she did. She leaned forward and captured Mulder’s bottom lip with hers. Gentle at first, whisper soft, testing, cautious, careful. Then she felt Mulder’s hand slide along her cheek, his fingers tangling in her hair, drawing her closer. Boldly, Scully opened her mouth further, tasting his lips, then his mouth with her tongue.
It felt amazing. Her heart pounded in her chest. Mulder tasted like chocolate and marshmallows and something that was entirely his own.
I could get used to this, she thought as Mulder’s tongue entered her mouth, exploring. She couldn’t help but giggle as it probed and poked at her teeth in an oddly specific way.
“What are you doing?” she asked, breaking the kiss with a giggle that she hoped sounded endearing and cute and not bitchy or judgmental.
Mulder smiled and pressed his forehead to hers. His breath warm on her lips.
“Feeling your teeth.”
“Is that your signature move?”
“Kind of. It’s what I used to imagine when I fantasized about french kissing girls.”
“And you still do it?”
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, did I just make it weird?”
“No! No. Just unexpected. How do my teeth feel?”
“Out of this world.”
Scully couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Wrapping her arms around Mulder, she pushed her face into his shoulder.
“Great answer,” she said, her voice muffled in his sweater.
Mulder took advantage of this new position and pressed a feather light kiss onto Scully’s ear. As her giggle fit died, the kisses moved along her jawline. When she looked up, he moved to her chin, then to the side of her mouth then back to her lips, where she was ready for him. This time she scraped her teeth along his bottom lip, gently applying pressure. It was Mulder’s turn to break the kiss, after he made the tiniest of moans.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m a biter,” Scully admitted with a devilish grin.
“Of course you are,” Mulder said. “Now I’m really glad I felt your teeth.”
“To make sure I’m not a vampire?”
“Bingo.”
Lips crashed together. Deeper this time, wetter, sloppier and more insistent. Hands started to wander. Fingers sneaking under clothes, desperate to feel skin.
Shit. Scully thought again.
She wanted to rip off his shirt, rip off his everything and fuck his brains out. But she restrained herself. This wasn’t just some cute punk boy she was grabbing in an alley after a show; some anonymous piece off ass she was using to fill an hormonal need and nothing more. This was Mulder. Mulder was different. Mulder was special. Mulder was her friend.
“Mulder —“ she broke away, voice breathy.
“You have to study,” he said, reading her mind.
“And you have a paper to write,” she said, possibly reading his.
“I knew you’d say that,” he grinned.
Scully took a breath, she wasn’t good at discussing her feelings, and she really didn’t want to ruin this moment, this awesome fucking moment, with “a talk” but this was Mulder, she had to approach this carefully.
“Also…”
“Also?” the surprise was evident in his voice. Surprise and and a tiny bit of trepidation.
“You don't know what I’m going to say next?”
“Not a clue.” A little bit more trepidation this time.
“I kind think we should…”
Mulder held his breath, bracing himself for the unknown.
“…go slow. Because, I — I really don’t wanna fuck this up.” Scully choked out the words feeling as inarticulate as a badger.
“I don’t think you could fuck anything up.” Mulder said softly.
“No, I can. And do. All the time. I’m a pro at it.”
“Yeah me too.” Mulder admitted.
He pulled her close and she reseted her chin on his shoulder. They stayed still for a long moment, holding tight, lost in their own minds.
“We should go back to studying.” Scully broke the silence as she moved back to face Mulder.
“Yeah.”
“So…you should let go now.”
“You should let go now. “
Neither moved. Blue eyes stared up into hazel.
“I’m going to kiss you again.”
“I’m okay with that.”
—
Eventually they untangled themselves and got back to work. Mulder to his paper, Scully to her books.
An hour passed. Mulder looked behind him to find Scully spread out on his bed, sleeping soundly, using her biology book as a pillow.
He rose from his desk, turned off the overhead light and went to her. He pulled his Star Wars blanket over her and replaced her book with a real pillow. He leaned down an pressed a soft kiss on her temple and was rewarded by a tiny smile that traveled up her cheek.
He’d planned on dedicating his life to exploring the great unknown, searching for truth in the dangerous darkness. Now he stood in a different darkness facing a new unknown that scared him in ways he’d never imagined.
“Mulder,” Scully murmured, somewhere in the valley between wakefulness and sleep.
“Yeah?” Mulder whispered.
“I like you.”
Mulder’s heart stirred, a tiny bit of his fear melted away. “I like you too, Scully. I like you a lot.”
“Yaaay!” she whispered in a tiny voice that faded into sleep.
Mulder went back to his desk. He set an alarm for 7:30am which would give Scully plenty of time to get up and get ready for her first test at 10.
He lifted his hands once more to his laptop. Keys tapped rhythmically in the darkness, occasionally punctuated by a tiny Scully snore.