Work Text:
They were 4 beers in.. 5? No, no. 4 beers and 3 whiskey shots into their evening at the local FBI watering hole. Mulder can’t help staring and smirking at his usually prim, proper, put together, partner currently sporting blushed cheeks, sweaty bangs, and a rumpled pantsuit.
To say he was shocked when she agreed to a couple drinks after a particularly taxing week would be an understatement. He knew she enjoyed a glass of wine every now and then, but he had no idea she could throw them back like this. He was thoroughly impressed that she was making her Irish ancestors proud. She was the one that suggested the first and second round of shots. He was learning a lot about her tonight while they drank, laughed, and chatted freely, without the confines of work.
“Why are you STARING at me?” He was brought out of his reverie as she asked, probably louder than she intended. She also has a goofy smile plastered onto her face.
The tips of his ears turn as pink as her cheeks at getting caught. Although, he wasn’t even trying to hide his gazing. “I’m not STARING. I’m just looking at you. It’s nice to see you like this.” he gestures to her.
“What? Shitfaced?” She giggles. Actually giggles and it’s like a shock to his system. He finds that he loves the sound. He laughs with her.
“That’s not what I meant. I guess I just meant, it’s good to see you happy, carefree, not so serious.”
“Listen here, despite my reputation of being a frigid Bitch, an ice queen, a cold person.” she spits. “I am actually a very fun person!”
He holds his hands up in surrender. “Hey, I never doubted you, Scully. I know how much fun you can be, I even know that you don’t have to be shitfaced to be fun. I always enjoy spending time with you. You shouldn’t listen to those stupid rumours or nicknames anyway. They’re all bullshit, created by bored, lesser agents.” He rolls his eyes, he’s been unable to escape his nickname since the academy.
“You don’t listen to them either!” She says passionately, slamming her palm on the table. “Although, sometimes you are actually pretty spooky. But, like, in the best way possible.” She’s gleaming at him now and slightly slurring her words.
“Thank you?” He chuckles and she’s giggling again. Oh, God, he really likes that sound.
Just then a bar staff member is speaking into a Mic at a makeshift stage announcing that karaoke will be starting up momentarily and people can start signing up.
“We should do a song!” Mulder exclaims, also slurring his words now.
“Mulder, no.” she says flatly.
“Scully, yes.” He counters.
“No.” She raises her eyebrows in challenge.
“Yes,” he reaches out and tickles her ribs.
“No! No!” She giggles again, but kicks his shin under the table.
“OOWW!” He overexergerates, reaching down to grab and rub at his shin.
Scully brings her hand to her mouth to try to hide her giggle to no avail. “I am so sorry! It was just a reflex though, I swear!”
“Just for that, you have to sing a song with me.” He flashes her a puppy dog pout, knowing she can’t resist it.
“Ugghh! Fine! But, I’m going to need another shot.” She resigns.
“I gotchu, girl.” He slurs, shooting up from his seat to sign them up and get them another round of whiskey.
-------------
One more shot turned into two. They joked, laughed, and listened to the other patrons sing songs while they waited for their turn. While Mulder was giddy, Scullys stage fright was starting to seep in. While she was not frigid and was totally fun, she was also a bit shy when it came to performing. She could teach a class at Quantico, face her superiors, and go head to head with anybody who tried to discount their work, but she lost some of her confidence when it came to singing in front of other people.
Mulder, in his haze, noticed her smile had faded and her panic face had emerged. “Hey, you okay Scully?”
“Yeah, I’m just a bit nervous. You should know, Mulder, I can’t sing and I do tend to get stage fright.” He gave her a lopsided smile, attempting to convey empathy.
“Don’t even worry about it. Everybody here is as drunk as we are, or aren’t even paying attention. Plus, I’ll be right up there with you.” He patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.
“I know, but-”
Just then they were interrupted by the M.C calling their names to the stage.
“Come on, Scully. You can do this!” He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her up to the stage, she reluctantly complied. They both grabbed their microphones from the stands as neither was properly adjusted to their heights.
Suddenly and loudly, the familiar chords of a piano banging filled the room. The classic Elton John riff played and Scully couldn’t help simultaneously groaning and giggling at the cliche song choice. She turned to Mulder but he just shrugged with a smirk. Sensing her anxiety, Mulder decided to take the first verse.
“Hey Kids, shake it loose together. The spotlight’s hitting something that’s been known to change the weather. We’ll kill the fatted calf tonight so stick around. You’re gonna hear electric music solid walls of sound.”
Scully found herself delightfully surprised that he was actually able to carry a tune. Despite the fact that he was over emphasizing certain words in his drunken, showman state. When he started to dramatically rock his hips in time to the beat while he continued singing, she couldn’t help but roll her eyes at his unrelenting confidence.
Her eyes continued to roll as she spotted the table of Bureau receptionists leering at him from a table in the crowd. That was until he turned to her when he dragged out a brooding “B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets.” with his bottom lip slightly pouted and eyes boring into her, baiting her to join in with him.
Holding his gaze, she lifted her microphone to aide in the chorus. Together they sang.
“Oh Candy and Ronnie, have you seen them yet
Oh but they're so spaced out, Bennie and the Jets
Oh but they're weird and they're wonderful
Oh Bennie she's really keen
She's got electric boots a mohair suit
You know I read it in a magaziiiiine, oh
B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets.”
With new found confidence, she took the next verse on her own. Mulder gazed at her in amazement, as she never broke eye contact. He felt as though it was just the two of them in the bar. Her face more flushed than before, but eyes sparkling, he was entirely enamored by her.
By the second chorus, she was also swaying her hips in time with his. During the music solo, they lightly rocked and bumped into each other in an awkward kind of dance, both absolutely giddy.
To Mulders shock and amusement, Scully sang the next chorus by herself, putting on her best slightly off key falsetto. Brought out of his trance by a wink from her, he joined in for the last verse. Both of them giving their absolute all. Yelling a little bit more than singing, “She's got electric boots a mohair suit, You know I read it in a magaziiiiine, oh B-B-B-Bennie and the Jets.”
By the outro, they were slightly leaning on each other and couldn’t help laughing a bit as they met each other's falsetto “Bennie!” Both of them trying to go higher than the other’s last one.
When they had finished their song, they finally turned back to the crowd only to notice that, like Mulder had predicted, no one was really paying attention to them other than the table of receptionists still undressing Mulder with their eyes and a few glances and whispers from agents here and there. Running off adrenaline, dopamine, and alcohol, Scully floated back to their table to finish her drink with Mulder close behind. After paying their tab, they stumbled outside into the chilly winter evening, still laughing.
Leaning against a fence post outside the bar, they caught their breath while waiting for cabs to pick each of them up. A comfortable silence fell upon them, while they smiled stupidly to themselves. Scully was the first to speak up.
“Thanks for making me do that, Mulder. That was a lot of fun. I haven’t done karaoke in so long.”
“Hey, that was all you. I think you proved to a lot of people that you are anything but a frigid, ice queen.” He smirked at her.
She scoffed at this. “Yeah right. If anything, we just fueled more rumours about Mr. and Mrs. Spooky. Much to the chagrin of those receptionists, I’m sure.”
“What do you mean?” He asked, brows furrowed, genuinely confused.
“Oh, come on, Mulder. You had to have seen the way they were all drooling over you when you swayed your hips like that.” Blush creeping up on his ears, Mulder tried to suppress his smirk by looking at the ground.
“I didn’t. I only saw you, Scully.” He looked up into her eyes. She took a deep shuddering breath while a matching blush took over her cheeks. They fell back into a silence for a beat. Mulder, self-conscious that he had made her uncomfortable, attempted to lighten the mood.
“But hey, you were right about something, Scully.”
“What’s that?” She wrinkled her nose in confusion.
“You can’t sing.” He said adoringly, laughing slightly.
“Mulderrrrr,” she whined, lightly hitting his arm.
“It’s fine though, what you lacked in pitch, you made up for with enthusiasm and stage presence.” He laughed louder this time, unable to control the giggles that poured through him.
She just scoffed, rolling her eyes and suppressing a smile. “Whatever, Mulder. I had fun and I think that is all that matters.” She raises her eyebrow to emphasize her statement.
Looking at that high eyebrow, he suddenly feels much more serious, “I couldn’t agree more, Scully.” He exhaled a long breath, feeling a bit more sober now.
As they gazed at each other, a cab pulled up to the curbside near where they were standing. They both walked over to it as Mulder reached out to open the door for her.
“Here, Scully, you take this one, I’ll catch the next one.”
“Okay. Thanks again for tonight, Mulder. I had a great time.” To seemingly both of their surprise, Scully reaches up on her tiptoes, to place a gentle kiss on Mulder’s cheek. “I’ll see you Monday.”
Momentarily shocked, Mulder looks at her a beat too long. She bites her bottom lip and smiles up at him. He smiles sweetly back. “Right, Monday. See you then, Scully.”
With that he closes the door and her cab drives away. He doesn’t have to wait too much longer for his own cab to pull up. While sitting in the back seat, staring aimlessly out the window as the city passes him by, Mulder can’t seem to wipe the silly grin off his face. In his still relatively drunk state, he remembers the way she kissed his cheek, the way her eyes sparkled while she sang to him, and the way she winked at him. How warm and endeared he felt watching her cut loose, legitimately happy. He wonders why corporate wastes money on those team building seminars, when really one of the greatest bonding experiences is to get shitfaced with your partner and sing bad karaoke together. The sobering part of his mind thinks briefly of the very long list of unethical reasons why they do not do that, but he decides to ignore them for right now. He just focuses on the way he feels in the moment; Happy, humming the catchy chorus of Bennie and the Jets, a new favourite of his.