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Mulder sighed as he looked around the terrace, skimming the small clusters of people that still stood outside chit-chatting. The guests had begun to leave, and he was impatient to do the same, but he couldn’t see Scully anywhere.
Last time he saw her, she was outside, and he’d even double-checked the salon, but she was nowhere. Maybe she’d found a lead? Unlikely. Not that he cared that much, it wasn’t really an X-File; but she put down her foot and wouldn’t let him do any proper field work — “I won’t have you running around after some cryptid, if you dislocate that shoulder again, I’m not helping you”— and Skinner fully endorsed her.
So they were sent off to look for suspects, on a case boring enough that he could impossibly get injured — well, not impossibly, he did tend to experience things others deemed not possible; but at least he got free food. And a chance to see Scully in a dress.
What kind of people threw a wedding party in the middle of Winter anyway? And one week after New Year’s, on top of that. He was close to freezing, despite the heating lamps and the fact that the terrace was closed off on 3 sides, but he could not handle the small talk with those rich guests anymore — he was well-versed in it, but there was a reason he didn’t attend any of his mother’s social functions whenever he could avoid them.
Suddenly he felt two arms wrap around his middle and a pressure between his shoulder blades. “Honey, will you dance with me? You know I love this song.” Taken by surprise, he turned around to face Scully, and before he could say anything, she’d grabbed his hand and pulled him away from his table, taking his right hand and, all business, putting it on her waist, and her own left hand on his shoulder.
They swayed for a bit as he discreetly searched the room looking over her head, quickly meeting the eye of a middle-aged man in a dark blue suit, staring at them in disappointment like a child whose parents refused to buy them a Kinder Egg.
“That your secret admirer?” Mulder joked. “Scully, are you using me to make your crush jealous?” She rolled her eyes.
There wasn’t exactly a large dance floor outside, and the music was wafting through the doorway, not very loud, so she whispered her next words to him.
“Sorry, I couldn’t shake him off. Some guys won’t respect a woman unless they know she’s with someone else.”
Mulder widened his eyes.
“That is —” she hurried to correct her statement, “if they think she’s with someone else. Look, can we just pretend to be a couple? Just until he goes away.”
Mulder nodded, disappointed. They’d kissed. Just a little over a week ago. She’d kissed him back. They smiled at each other, she drove him home, she even gave him a peck goodbye and then… And then nothing. And he was starting to think it would stay that way.
“Anyway, how about you?”
“Me? What about me?” He asked, torn away from his thoughts of that night.
“Did you find any leads, anything we can use?”
“No, just that Amy’s neighbour is pregnant and the groom’s sister is single.”
“Oh. So he set you up on a date?”
“What? No.”
This was getting really awkward really quickly, the whole fake couple thing had never worked out well for them, and it seemed not to be working out now, either. It hit too close to home for Mulder, and he couldn’t help hoping Scully felt the same too.
“I guess your luck was the same?” He asked, changing the subject back.
“Yeah, I thought my secret admirer had something useful but in the end he just wanted to tell me about his business ventures.”
“I guess we should call a cab then? No point in staying here any longer.”
Mulder extended his arm and absent-mindedly guided Scully through a twirl, not quite seeing her expression of surprise and delight on the way back. This was something he knew he could do, dance. He didn’t do it a lot, but if he had a chance of doing it with Scully, he’d take it. And he had an inkling that perhaps she found it charming.
Still smiling, she looked up at him as she spoke. “We can do that, but we can also stay for the free food, if you like?”
Mulder laughed. “No thanks, I think I’ve had enough caviar to last a lifetime. Unless you’re still hungry, that is? You should definitely try the cake.”
“No, not at all, I —”
Mulder slowed his movements, almost standing still, his hand still holding hers at the side of their bodies.
“Scully, he’s gone, we can stop dancing now.”
“Oh. I…” she faltered, licking her lips, and he knew her well enough to see the insecurity in her eyes. “Would you mind dancing a little longer? I do like this song.”
In lieu of an answer, he smiled and led her into a fancy 8-shaped spin. Scully laughed: she had no idea what she was doing, but Mulder was a good leader, so they worked it out. After all, they had never had the perfect circumstances, but always made the best of it anyway.
He’d do anything she asked him to, but right now part of him wanted to distance himself from this, from being so close to her and knowing it was just them having some fun during an assignment; the other part of him just wanted to stay as long as possible.
They danced for more than that one song, and by the time the third number came on, they were gently swaying on the dance floor, Scully resting her head between his neck and his shoulder, their linked hands at the side of their bodies. Hearing a sigh from Scully, he closed his eyes and experimentally pulled her in a little closer. Almost in response, her left hand crept up from his shoulder up to his neck. He didn’t dare speak, worried that it would shatter whatever bubble in time they were in, but it was too much for him to be so close to her, feel her delicate fingers on the back of neck, her hair against his jaw, and all of that after having opened that door to something else just a few days ago.
He bit his lip, and finally said something.
“Scully?”
“Hmm? Oh, I’m sorry, is this okay?” she raised her head, looking at him and letting go of his hand, slightly flustered.
“No, it’s not that,” he said, his hand on her back gentle but firm, preventing her embarrassment to cause her to flee. “Is this… Is this because of the case?”
Silence. Stupid question, he’d just ruined everything, whatever “everything” meant.
“That depends,” her voice was small.
“On what?”
They were barely moving now, and she looked up at him from beneath her lashes.
“Was New Year’s Eve just a tradition?”
He looked at her seriously, hoping he’d be able to make her understand what he meant, and said the words slowly.
“It’s whatever you want it to be.”
Her body stilled and she glanced down.
“In that case,” she licked her lips. “The assignment...”
It was a gut punch and he felt himself dangerously close to that black hole that had been threatening to swallow him ever since they started toeing that line.
“It’s just a convenient excuse.” Her next words came fast enough to pull him back to the present moment. “Because… She finally lifted her gaze to him. “I want it to be more.”
Mulder's heart went back into its place and the smile on his face wasn't enough to contain his happiness and incredulity over hearing that statement. He realised, from looking at her face, that Scully was nervously awaiting a reply.
“I want that too.”
Her smile was smaller, her expression more restrained than his, but he knew her and so he knew what it meant.
He placed his other arm around her back and pulled her in, hugging her tightly and closing his eyes, resting his chin on her head and letting out a long sigh of relief.
He felt Scully’s shy fingers lightly scratch the base of his neck, her other arm squeezed between them, her not having had time to react to his embrace.
He kissed the crown of her head before letting go, covering Scully's small hand that had landed on his chest with his own. They smiled at each other as if sharing a secret. Scully's lips twitched as if she was about to say something when her eyebrows snapped together at the sound of the keyboard intro of the song that had just started playing inside.
He grinned at her expression, looking at her confused smile while the lyrics about a frog called Jeremiah were sung.
“Why is this song playing at a wedding?” She laughed.
“The DJ was accepting requests earlier on. Someone probably asked for it.” He lifted an eyebrow and gave her a crooked smile, and she chuckled.
“You know, you can be quite charming sometimes.”
“Only sometimes?” He pouted in mock hurt but it didn't last, as suddenly her palm was on his cheek and her lips were on his. It barely lasted 5 seconds, shorter than their first kiss; still somewhat tentative on Scully’s part, judging by the suddenness, but that seemingly simple action meant she was sure of her decision. He was very aware of his dopey smile when they parted and he was about to draw her back in and continue when she stopped him with the hand that still remained on his chest.
“We should finish dancing to the song, it would be a shame if someone's request went to waste,” she said wryly.
“Scully...” He groaned, but complied.
The tension was gone, and Scully laughed freely as Mulder added some silly moves to his dance whenever she was self-conscious of her two small, high-heeled left feet.
“You’re a good dancer, Mulder!”
“Always the tone of surprise,” he replied as he pulled her in after a particularly impressive turn, but this time he held her there.
A draught blew in from the side of the terrace that was open to the gardens, and Scully shuddered against his chest.
“Scully, you must be freezing! I'm sorry, here, have my jacket.”
He hurriedly took off his suit jacket and wrapped it tightly around her, fussing over her and making her giggle as he insisted she stick her arms through the sleeves, folding them up so her hands were still visible despite the huge jacket. She looked tiny in her long black dress and the dramatically oversized navy blue blazer that covered her butt, giving her old suits with their shoulder pads a run for their money. She raised her eyebrows disapprovingly, holding back a laugh.
Although he felt like an ass for not having thought of it before, he wondered whether the cold wasn't another convenient excuse for her to stay close to him, and, in a surge of glee, realised that there might have been other moments where she'd found an excuse before.
Well, neither of them needed an excuse now, so he stepped close to her and wrapped his arms around her, beneath the jacket to hold her tight. She looked up at him for a moment, and didn’t hesitate before pulling him down and kissing him. This time she did not stop, and he held her so tightly around her back and waist that he almost lifted her clean off the ground. Something in him was slightly self-conscious about the fact that they looked like two teenagers at prom, making out on the dance floor and thinking their first love would last forever. The difference being that this was not his first love, but it would definitely be the last.
She smiled almost shyly after they separated, and the rest of the night was spent like that, with them dancing (which mostly entailed holding each other as close as they could), kissing, and finally sharing the slice of cake Mulder insisted Scully tried. They didn’t realise almost 2 hours had passed before someone came outside to interrupt their shameless activities: the party was officially over. They smiled bashfully and thanked their baffled hosts on the way out.
Yes, thought Mulder, that assignment had been a great excuse. He hadn’t had to hide how he felt, and he knew that from now on, they would never have the chance to be a couple in public: this boring case had become one of the best ones in a long time. He wouldn’t mind more undercover assignments like this one, where as far as anyone knew, they were just a regular couple, one that couldn’t keep their hands off of each other.
As they sat in the back of the cab on the way to Scully’s house, hands linked, he couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and she must have felt it since she looked back and grinned at him after a particularly long stretch of time.
He didn’t care what would happen once they arrived at her apartment; the only thing he cared about was that they were together now, and that Scully had told him, in her roundabout way, that this is what she wanted. She didn’t do things on a whim; she had waited and weighed her decision, so he knew he had more evenings with her to look forward to from now on.
The next morning, he woke her up with a kiss to her forehead and gently stroking her hair — unfortunately, they had to go to work, but lying together, sharing their warmth and feeling the smoothness of her skin and her scent, had given him the best sleep he’d had in years.
“Hey,” he murmured when she finally opened her eyes. She blinked sleepily and stretched before curling into him once more, making a muffled sound into his skin, her eyelashes tickling his neck.
She tipped her head back and looked at him for a while, the corners of her lips curving upwards, and Mulder frowned and smiled at her self-consciously. “What?”
In response, she shuffled up and pressed her lips to his briefly, before saying in a raspy, sleep-worn voice: “I’ve changed my mind. You’re charming more than sometimes.” She paused, giving him a kiss on his jaw and speaking into his neck. “And you’re actually quite wonderful when you want to be.”
His smile grew impossibly wider, as he whispered into her ear: “You know, I think you might actually be the love of my life.”
He felt her lips tremble and she moved her head just enough to give him a last kiss before burying her head in the crook of his neck. They stayed like that for the few minutes left before the next ring of the alarm clock, savouring this first morning together, marking not the beginning but a continuation of something that had started that fateful day where an unlikely partnership had formed in the basement of the J. Edgar Hoover building.