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“You weren’t trying to slink off to the basement, were you?” Skinner’s voice stopped Mulder so abruptly that his dress shoes squeaked against the tile.
“Who me?” Mulder responded with faux innocence. “Never.”
“Remember, Agent. This sexual harassment training is mandatory, and I expect your butt in that seat,” Skinner warned. “Who knows? Maybe you’ll even learn something.”
Mulder smirked, making some smartass comment about “not threatening him with a good time” before shuffling into the board room with the rest of the suits. Scully was already there, hands folded in her lap like the perfect student she was. She smiled, and he squeezed her shoulder, taking the seat beside her. The board room felt an awful lot like high school detention, and Mulder fantasized about carving something juvenile into the side of his chair.
Skool suxs , or better yet, Skinner stinkz.
Stuff like this only wasted his time. Important work sat neglected in the basement while he sat in an uncomfortable chair. He had sunflower seeds at the ready, each kernel poised to crunch away boredom and hopefully attract a few annoyed stares. At this point, any distraction was welcome.
However, Mulder’s stomach clenched as the presenter read through the slides. When “Examples of Sexual Harassment” appeared on the screen, it dropped entirely. Each bullet seemed pinpointed at him and Scully—or rather, his interactions with Scully.
Making comments about a coworker’s physical attributes.
Check.
Inappropriate touching of any body part, including hugging or kissing.
Double check.
Staring.
Hell, he was doing that right now, his eyes glued to the smooth skin of her legs neatly crossed at her ankles.
Suddenly, Mulder was sweating. Flirting with Scully had become a part of his daily routine. Sometimes, she looked so beautiful, he couldn’t help but tell her, even if corny jokes and innuendo often concealed his true affection.
He had memories of flushed cheeks and shy smiles. He even had memories of salacious comebacks. But maybe he’d been mistaken. The idea he could have ever made her uncomfortable made him want to sprint from the room.
Scully twisted in his direction with that damn intuition of hers. “Are you okay?” she mouthed, concerned eyes racking over him.
He thought about screaming at her to face forward—to save herself. Instead, he just nodded, fidgeting endlessly with his pen.
She didn’t seem entirely satisfied with the answer. Curious fingers found his knee, and Mulder nearly leaped to his feet.
She was trying to kill him.
Her hand was gone, but the warmth of her touch lingered. He pried his attention from her—and from her legs. Scully’s gaze burnt like coal, but he wouldn’t look, not even if she started unbuttoning her blouse.
Nope.
Nada.
Well… maybe he’d look.
Who was he kidding? Of course, he’d look. He was absolutely hopeless.
“Mulder, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he responded, eyes boring into the parchment paper that once housed his turkey sandwich. After the meeting, Scully returned to the office with coffee and subs; he returned with nothing but guilt. They’d sat in silence with the desk between them.
“You haven’t even looked at me since we got here.”
“Hmmm.”
“Mulder!” This time, she nearly yelled it.
His head snapped up. The crumbs on his empty wrapper hadn’t been half as captivating as her eyes, now icy and sharp.
“What’s going on with you?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “I guess that training… it got under my skin.”
She chuckled. “Really? Wait,” she dismissed her laughter with the wave of a hand. “I shouldn’t laugh. It just doesn’t seem like you.” Then, she pouted. “Is somebody bothering you at work?”
“What? No,” he insisted.
“Then what’s wrong?”
He shrugged. “After hearing all that, I’m worried I’ve been bothering you.”
Her face turned as hard as marble. Mulder readied himself to leave, to walk straight to Quantico and slap his resignation on Skinner’s desk, neatly typed and double spaced.
Sorry, sir. I’ve really done it this time. I ruined the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Better yet, why not cut out his heart? Surely, he wouldn’t need it if he didn’t have Scully. Why wait? He could do it right now in the office. That letter opener looked pretty sharp. The janitor might not be too happy about the mess, but—
“Why would you think that?” she asked.
“Well, those slides.” He cleared his throat. “They mentioned touching, staring, and… uh… making comments about a coworker’s physical attributes.
“Mulder.” Her lips curved into that pout again.
He’d heard her say his name like that thousands of times. It was tinged with disappointment and just a trace of sadness. Heat rushed to his face. His hand twitched with the desire to dump his now-cold coffee over his head.
“I think you forgot what adjective preceded those verbs,” she continued.
“Scu—”
“Unwanted .”
His eyebrows jumped to his forehead. “So, you’re saying...”
“I’m saying none of those things are a problem if they’re wanted by the recipient. That’s the point you missed back there—the point you’ve been missing for years.”
Part of him felt like collapsing from relief. The other part wanted to leap into the air. Did he have champagne somewhere in the office? He felt like popping some.
“Don’t look so smug,” Scully warned, mouth curling into a shy smile.
He didn’t want to lose momentum now. Rising to a stand, his hands found purchase among the ink blotter and scattered files. “So, just to confirm, touching your lower back is…”
“Gentlemanly,” she responded while mirroring his movement so they were both leaning across the desk.
“Offering you a hug?”
“Comforting.”
“Holding your hand?”
“Sweet.”
“My bad habit of staring?
Her gaze flicked to his mouth before refocusing on his eyes. “Erotic,” she whispered.
He closed the distance, lips finding hers after waiting for so long. They were so soft that he was reluctant to stop. “And what about that?”
“Perfect,” she uttered.
It took everything in him not to pull her onto the desk. He was still gawking at her like a love-drunk idiot when she removed lab results from one of the files instead of a marriage certificate. Her cheeks were still flush, her eyes twinkling as she launched into every reason she was right and he was wrong about the current case.
The smile never left his face.
Skinner was right. Mulder did learn something. He loved Scully, and she loved him back.