Chapter Text
The foreboding chill of late autumn whipped against his ears as he jogged up the front walk into her apartment building; they were in for a harsh winter. He felt a little bit nervous, which struck him as silly. Maybe it was the way she’d cooed “it’s a date” when he proposed picking her up at noon, or maybe it was that she’d called him a couple hours ago with a question about what she should wear, betraying just how much thought she was putting into this. He couldn't recall ever having the first date come after the sex, and perhaps that’s what had him nervous, too. It wasn’t as though they were working towards something here, like there was a goal in mind; he just wanted to make good on his promise to take her on a real date after the hell he’d put her through on Waldron.
Even if not for that promise, he just wanted to take her out, for no reason other than the pleasure of her company; one of the many of life’s simple pleasures they’d summarily denied themselves for more years than could be counted on one hand.
She answered in fitted, dark wash jeans and a black cable knit sweater with a deep V neckline. Nothing fancy, but it still inspired a broad smile as she turned to get her purse, revealing just how snugly the jeans fit over her ass.
“Where are we going?” she asked as she stood on tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek.
“You’ll see,” he replied good-naturedly, ushering her out the door with a hand on her lower back.
He stole glances at her across the cab of the car on the way to Baltimore, her profile framed by the deep yellow leaves still clinging to the trees lining the street. She looked different to him somehow, though he couldn’t say exactly what had changed.
I’ve been a bad, bad girl.
I’ve been careless with a delicate man.
And it’s a sad, sad world.
When a girl will break a boy, just because she can.
A spike of adrenaline hit him square in the chest and he reached out to switch the radio off with a level of urgency that made her cast him a quizzical look.
“I don’t like that song,” he offered lamely, and she pushed her bottom lip into a pout.
“That’s too bad. I love Fiona Apple,” she lamented.
Ninety minutes later, they parked near Pier Four on the Patapsco River and she smiled curiously as she spotted the National Aquarium across the street.
“Have you been?” he asked nervously, and she shook her head with that same sweet smile.
They walked the glass encased hallways of the aquarium side by side, but not touching, as they read placards and learned new facts that they could add to their combined encyclopedic knowledge of the world. His fingers itched to take her hand, or wrap around her tiny waist, but he resisted.
She stopped to admire a large orange-tinted jellyfish with a milky cluster of white tentacles encased within a border of thinner, corded ones.
“The Pacific sea nettle can measure up to thirty inches wide,” she read off the placard. “While painful, the venomous sting of the sea nettle isn’t typically deadly to humans.” She tilted her face up to watch the angelic creatures gliding effortlessly on the other side of the glass, her skin awash in blue. “They’re beautiful,” she remarked with awe.
“Beautiful and dangerous,” he quipped softly, “sounds like someone else I know.”
She shot him a surprised look, pink rising to her cheeks as she smiled bashfully.
Though they had spent a considerable amount of their free time in one another’s company since returning from Washington State, there had been no discussion regarding what it was, or what it meant, or what they wanted it to mean. Initially they were too anxious to be separated, and when the time came that they were confident that the nightmare was truly over, they simply preferred to continue sharing a bed most nights. He wanted to ask her so many questions: did she love him, and for how long, did she want to be with him, truly be with him, as much as he wanted to be with her? Too afraid to overwhelm her and scare her off, he tried to just enjoy it for as long as it might last.
Exiting to an open-air section of the aquarium, she shivered and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She didn’t pull away, just looked up at him gratefully as they approached a deep pool. Two otters darted in and out of the water, tossing toys to the bottom and diving down to retrieve them. Scully smiled in amusement at the furry creatures’ antics, one of them floating on its back with a toy resting on its belly.
“Don’t let these things fool you,” Mulder remarked, squeezing her shoulder, “they’re cute, but if you piss ‘em off, they’ll shred you to pieces.”
“Cute, but prone to violent outbursts,” she said playfully, giving him a sarcastic leer. “Sounds like someone I know.”
He dropped his jaw open in mock offense, then narrowed his eyes at her.
“You think I’m cute?” he asked rhetorically, and she rolled her eyes.
Dropping his arm, he moved to the informational placard and read it to her. “Native to the Northern Pacific, sea otters spend the majority of their life in the water. They are known to hold hands while sleeping to avoid drifting away from their mates.”
Scully sidled up next to him, her hand wrapping around his forearm before it slid down to nestle in his palm. He extended his fingers in invitation, and she threaded hers through them, finishing with a squeeze. He looked down at her and found a peaceful, open expression on her face, though her jaw chattered slightly from the chill. A flood of affection gripped at his chest, and she gave him a questioning look.
“I don’t want you to drift away,” he said softly, feeling raw and vulnerable.
She smiled, moving to re-enter the building and towing him along behind her.
“Then don’t let go of my hand.”
END