Chapter Text
Scully felt herself almost gripped by a deep sense of nostalgia as she and Mulder exited the reunion that night. She had never been to a high school reunion, hell, it wasn't even her reunion. Still, it felt a deep mixture of familiarity of dreams of the past, and hopes for the future. She admitted to herself that Shelia and Holman's romance at the end was cute. It felt like she and Mulder were self-inserted into a romantic fairy tale where the two leads found each other after a long relationship of friendship in the end and they, presumably, live happily ever after.
She was happy that she was able to help. Once she got over the pang of jealousy of seeing Sheila and Mulder kiss, which to be fair, he didn't have the expression of someone caught as so much as if it was like if the damn Mothman came out of the walls and decided to kiss him, she found Sheila a sweet woman. Unlike Mulder's "dating help" her advice seemed to have struck a coord, stating her own belief that some of the best relationships are rooted in friendships.
Scully refused to focus on the irony of her own situation.
It was in this cascade of romantic nostalgia that she found herself coming up to the hotel with Mulder, who seemed to have been swimming in his own thoughts during the trip. The hotel that still had the damage from the cow-sized hole in its roof.
Oh right.
The earliest plane that they could book was tomorrow evening, so that meant that it would be one more night of Mulder and Scully sharing a bed. This in itself was not a huge deal, Scully reasoned, after the initial panic of not being able to get another room mixed with the exasperation that she'll have to somehow write in the report that a cow caught in a mini tornado, of all things, destroyed Mulder's room. They have shared a room before, one time even Alex Trebek was involved, (yes the game show host. No, not that way). Over the years of our emotional trauma, one of them found themselves over at the other's rooms, having a best friend for someone to talk to, to ward off their demons until they fell asleep, comforted by the other's presence. There have been so many times that she was sure that she would have not been able to fall asleep if it wasn't for Mulder holding her away from the harm of the world, even if it was only for the night.
This time however, there were no narrow escapes from the worse the world had to offer, no illness or injury that Scully dutifully fawned over by the self-presented title of his doctor, no freshly opened trauma of scars that cannot be seen. They weren't even on an active case anymore to talk about theories until they drifted off in exhaustion. Instead they had that fuzzy, small town romantic nostalgia as the backdrop.
Despite this, Scully found herself not feeling awkward at all as Mulder, instead of doing the logical thing and rush to the hotel door to not get soaking wet, instead waited the extra couple of seconds and met up with Scully in front of the car to casually put his hand on the familiar part of her back. Rain flatted his hair as he also apparently didn't decide to get the keys ready to get in their room. As soon as he got inside he shook his head and Scully laughed a bit, reminding her of one of her childhood neighbours golden retrievers.
"It's really raining cats and dogs out there isn't it." She said
"Alas, it seems old Holman can control both the weather and the animals. Do you think he can control sleeping bags too?" He grinned like a child remembering a secret joke, water stilling dripping down his face.
"Maybe in your dreams Mulder." Scully said, but she could not help the grin that crawled forward as she separated from him to grab her dry clothes to change into for the night.
"You know I'm bad at sleeping, Scully." Mulder quipped, going toward his suitcase with the haphazard pile around it. His habit of not putting most of his clothes away actually seemed to work in his favour this time. Most of his belongings were relatively unscathed from the cow incident as he tended to put them near the wall, and not take them out until he needed it. It always seemed a little messy to Scully, him shuffling and wrinkling his clothes until they became a mismatched wad just to find what he is looking for, but this really wasn't the time to bring that up.
"Hmmm." Mulder said, still looking through the clothes stash, a little bit more frantically, dripping water on things as he went. "I can't.... Fuck"
"What’s the problem?" Scully asked, starting to be a little concerned. She already grabbed her pyjamas, and would have normally gone into the bathroom to shower and change, but Mulder was rummaging more urgently and violently than normal.
"Only jeans now." He muttered, barely loud enough for Scully to hear. It took a couple of seconds, but it dawned on her. While most of his clothes were fine, there were a couple of things that either didn't make it as they were strung around the ground, or he just didn't bring them. Apparently this included pyjama pants, though Scully thinks he just wears them for her sake and the nights he does stay over. The previous night, Mulder attempted to wear his jeans to bed, of all things, and Scully straight up refused, but also refused him sleeping on the ground. Hotel beds were uncomfortable enough, she did not need to have the knowledge that Mulder was right there making the active choice of wearing fucking jeans to sleep. While she didn't like the next choice either, they compromised and she allowed him to wear his only pair of slacks left to bed.
The same slacks that were drenched now.
"Mulder, it's fine, I promise I won't make fun of your underwear, even if they have the little cartoon hearts on them."
Mulder freezed mid dig. It was only for a couple of seconds, but she was sure she saw his so-called "panic face" and.... was that a blush?
"I'll have you know, Scully, that my boxers are the finest the discount section of K-mart has to offer. My ass is just too good for cartoon hearts." Mulder said confidently, all traces of the previous expression gone from his face.Scully smirked as she threw a towel to him and headed to the shower first. As she was showering, she tried not to think of the fact that Mulder would be sleeping right beside her wearing his boxers. Knowing that he would need the shower too to properly dry off, she was quick, deciding to bring the blow dryer with her outside and plug it in the same power outlet as the lamp.
Even though it makes perfect sense, she was still taken aback when she opened the door. Mulder was sitting on the ground with the white towel under him, trying to watch an old Twilight zone rerun, but his hair was spiked up from the rubbing. Most importantly, he was shirtless. This shouldn't be a big deal to Scully at this point; she has seen him shirtless so many times before; but he was still so beautiful. Half the times Scully gets to see him, he is either sick or injured so the situation detracts from her ogling, and the other half of the time, she cannot let on that she is admiring his body to him, so that short periods of time are a blessing.
Her eyes snapped up to his face as Mulder turned towards her.
"Hey G-woman. I ordered pizza. It is getting prepared by the finest pimply teenage cooks the town has to offer." He pointed out where the credit card was as he shuffled off to the shower. Scully had to again try not to think of the fact that Mulder now has even less clothes on, as she also contemplated working on the report. However, something held her back, telling her that this should just be a her-and-Mulder night. Not every hour needs to have work overtones. The laptop stayed in its bag untouched as she flopped on the bed watching the half finished segment of the show.
Quicker than expected the doorbell rang. She paid the, as Mulder predicted, pimply faced teenager and carried her prize to the tiny table provided. She supposed it made sense, it felt like half the town was off for that reunion. She found herself more hungry than she thought as the smell of delicious cheese and meat hit her senses, and ripped open the box in delight as Mulder chose her favourite pizza. She just finished her internal happy dance and grabbed a couple of pieces when Mulder appeared. She tried to not compare him to a greek sculpture of a god as the steam billowed out of the bathroom, and tried not to notice that he was now shirtless and pantsless. After all, they are friends right? Friends don't stare at friends' abs, or admire their bulges, or want to touch him. Certainly not coworker friends, right?
He also seemed delighted that the food had arrived, and they both succumbed to the ultimate luxury: eating unhealthy food in bed as they watched trash cable tv. With no pressing crisis or mystery, it felt nice. Scully had to admit, she did feel a little giddy over the fact that Mulder was right beside her wearing nothing but one layer of clothing, but she also felt a calming sense of everything just felt... right. Scully felt a warmful embrace of ease and happiness as she and Mulder laughed at each other's jokes of the shitty late night tv, or inside jokes.
Even as it was time for bed, it still did not evoke a deep sense of awkwardness, though Scully suspected that Mulder was not sure what to really do with himself, by the fact that as he was settling down, he seemed to be purposefully leaving a space between them. "A space for Jesus," her mothers voice creeped into her mind. Still, as he faced her and her eyes got used to the light being off, she was delighted at how at peace he looked. She had known how the years of trauma and worries wore him down and it was a small reminder as she looks upon his face, but much of that has seemed to have left him tonight, even if she knows that it was only temporary.
He smiled with contentment as he gazed at her sleepily." G'night Scully."
"Goodnight Mulder." Scully replied as she nuzzled further into the sheets. He closed his eyes and there was a couple of minutes of silence.
"Hey Scully." He mumbled, his voice cutting into the night. "I'm glad it worked out for Sheila and Holman." Scully nodded. More crass men would be commenting on Holman finally "getting some" or something of that nature, but Mulder mentioned none of that.
"Yeah, I told Shiela that the best relationships are rooted in friendships, and sometimes, one day, something just shifts."
"Mmmm." Mulder mumbled, and further relaxed. He draped his arm over Scully, then seemed to fall asleep. Scully smiled to herself and nuzzled closer, and allowed sleep to consume her as well.
After all, wherever Mulder goes, she would make sure he didn't have to take that journey alone anymore.