#but fluff!

As much as he relishes the sight, he knows he can't let her sleep. She's due at her family soon, and he's not going to get in the way of that.

"Scully," he whispers, gently tracing his finger against her cheek. Her skin is rosy and feels warm against his own. Butterflies take flight in his stomach as he watches her nose scrunch before she blinks her eyes open.

"Did I fall asleep?" she mumbles. "What time is it?"

"Early something. I didn't want you to miss Christmas with your family." She groans and stretches, her sweater riding up and revealing milky white skin. He's trying not to stare and knows he's failing.

"I need to get going." She uses Mulder's shoulder to heave herself up from the couch, leaving him in a cloud of her scent. She smells like vanilla and cinnamon, intoxicating him.

"Are you- have you thought about it?" Before she fell asleep, she asked him to accompany her to her mother's. Like every year. And like every year he said he'd think about it, knowing well he's going to decline. That was before he woke up to a sleepy, adorable Scully on his couch, whose face is so disarming that he's no longer sure what he should do.

"It would make my mom happy," she says. "It would make me even happier," she adds quietly. He can't say no. Not when she looks like she does. Or when she looks at him like this.

"How about," he begins and he sees her face fall. "I drive you to your mother's and then when you and her still want me there-"

"Mulder," she cuts him off, exasperation in her voice that he decides to ignore.

"Then I might stay an hour or two. What do you say?"

She observes him for a long, languid moment before she says, "let's go."

The roads are empty and they get to her mother's easily. And way too quickly for Mulder to have made up his mind. He parks the car and Scully throws him a smile, sweetly asking him to help her with the gifts. There's no way he can deny her.

They make their way to Mrs. Scully's house, their arms full with gifts. He's carrying a few more so that she can ring the doorbell. He hears a happy "Fox!" and mumbles a hello as he's ushered inside.

"Put the gifts over there." Maggie Scully pushes him into what he presumes is the living room. Once he's put down the boxes, he finds himself looking at a brightly smiling Mrs. Scully. Mulder has never seen her this delighted.

"I'm so happy you've finally decided to join us for Christmas, Fox." She engulfs him in a hug so tight that he's afraid he won't be able to catch another breath. A typical Scully hug. But usually, he receives them from her daughter and after he's almost died. He prefers it like this.

"I told you," Scully says smugly once her mother lets go of him.

"I had a feeling," she says, taking his hand into hers and pulling him toward the kitchen where various pans and pots are filled with pleasantly smelling delicacies. His stomach grumbles. Neither he nor Scully have eaten in a while.

"Dana said you're half Jewish," Mrs. Scully explains. "And I asked around, wanting to make something that would show you how much we appreciate you, Fox." With every word she says, the noose around his heart tightens. "I made latkes. Now, this is the first time I made them, but I had my neighbor try one and he said if you don't show up, he'll eat every single one of them. Do you like latkes, Fox? Oh, I hope you do." The knot in his throat prevents him from speaking, so he just throws his arms around Mrs. Scully, hoping she understands what this means to him.

"He loves everything that's made from potatoes," Scully says to her mother, and both women smile at him. A feeling of warmth spreads in his stomach. It feels very much like love.

"First things first," Mrs. Scully says, clapping her hands. "We have several little children - and a few adults - who want to open their presents. Come on you two."

In the next few hours, Mulder experiences a Christmas like he never has before. People he's never met treat him like he's part of the family. When Bill Jr. shows up, he grumbles exactly three times and then his expression softens. He pats Mulder on the back, lets him hold baby Matthew, and if he's heard right, gives him his blessing. For what, Mulder can only guess.

Scully remains by his side like a shadow. She falls asleep on him once while they're waiting for dinner. When she wakes up, and he moves a strand of hair off her forehead, her smile is like the first breaths of spring after an ice-cold winter. It takes his breath away.

She brushes his cheek with a finger, wiping away an invisible piece of lint, and her touch lingers. He still feels it when he stuffs himself with latkes, unable to stop himself. He thanks Mrs. Scully profusely in between bites, making her grin from ear to ear.

"Leave some for the rest of us," someone says to the amusement of everyone. He holds his breath while Bill Jr. tries one and only lets go of it once he announces that he likes it. There's laughter and joy, happiness and love. To Mulder, it feels surreal, like a dream. He barely dares to blink, afraid that if he does, he'll wake up in his cold, dark apartment, all alone.

"You look like a deer caught in the headlights." Scully is leaning against him and has her face tipped up. She's smaller than either of them is used to without her heels.

"Not to be pathetic," Mulder says, "but this might be the best Christmas I've ever had."

"Does that mean I won't have to talk you into this next year?" When she laughs, he feels it vibrate through his own body. Her eyes are sparkling and he's sure it's from the mulled wine they've had. He feels the effect of the alcohol, too, and can't stop glancing at her berry-red lips that are so deliciously inviting.

"You're going to get sick of me."

"Hmm, not gonna happen." She wobbles and he puts his hands on her waist to steady her. "I like having you here."

"I like being here."

"Then it's settled," she says, sighing. She turns in his arms, looking up at him. Should he dare? Should he try and make this night perfect?

"I wish there were mistletoe here," he whispers.

After an indeterminable amount of time he had reached that point of hovering on the precipice of true sleep once again, his mind still aware though his body was not going anywhere, and it was then that Vex continued to speak. 

Her voice was soft, like it was coming through a phone on speaker in the next room. It was also hesitant, and not jarring enough to bring him back to full consciousness. 

“We haven’t had a chance to talk recently,” she said, and Percy imagined the two of them sitting beside each other on the couch, a bottle of whiskey open on the table before them. “And I’m usually so good with words, so I don’t know why I feel the need to practice this…”

Vex was swirling her glass, the solid chunks of ice clinking against the sides as she stared down into it, her expression intense. 

“I haven’t told you, since you’ve been so busy and I haven’t had two minutes to myself over the past three weeks, but I’m late this month.”

Percy was confused, but he sipped his whiskey and waited for her to continue, her gaze still fixed on the ripples created in the amber liquid by swirling her ice cubes back and forth, back and forth. 

“I wasn’t worried - I’ve been late before, and I missed a couple days on the pill when I visited Pike in Vasselheim, so I kind of expected something to be off.”

Percy was trying to figure out what exactly she was talking about. He started trying to list the prescriptions he knew he was taking, and tried to recall some prescription that she had - she hadn’t had any recent health issues, had she? She took vitamins every day, but besides that…

Percy imagined their medicine cabinet and tried to picture each of the bottles, each of the labels, but the words ran together and some of them seemed larger than they should have been, and enraptured as he was with the images in his mind’s eye, he nearly missed her next words. 

“I haven’t felt well for the past few days. I assumed it was stress - goodness knows I’ve got enough on my plate as it is, with volunteering and working and the guest lectures I got signed up for… But something Keyleth said, it got me thinking.”

Percy stepped away from the bathroom cabinet and passed the kitchen, then appeared back on the couch, where Vex was still fixated on her whiskey. 

“She had been talking about how she and Vax might be trying for another kid, now that Sebastian is almost two… Sebastian Tiberius. I still can’t believe they had a kid first, you know, they were so slow starting out relationship, but they’re so happy now…”

The Vex in Percy’s mind had stood up, her hand pressed against the glass of the window that overlooked the city. Her glass of whiskey was pressed against her cheek, and when she pulled it away he wasn’t sure if he imagined the wetness there, or if it was from the glass, or from tears. 

It was slow going for Dream Percy to make his way over to the window to be with her, and his legs felt like lead weights were attached to them as he tried to reach her.

It was an age of walking, of trying to reach her, of long silence, before she spoke again. 

“I got some tests from the store on a whim, and- I’m so stupid. I tried them in a public bathroom on the way home, I just-”

Suddenly Percy was close enough to touch her, and Vex had turned to face him, the glass still clenched tightly in her hands, just at a level with his chest, so if he pulled her into his harms it would be touching just over his heart. 

“Obviously they could be faulty, I mean, that’s why I’m telling you this now, instead of waiting until you’re awake or something, but Keyleth said there’s a point where you just know and… Percy?”

Percy wanted to take her face in his hand, to run his thumb beneath her eye and clear away the dark circles that had come from months of seemingly non-stop responsibilities, but her hefty weight of silence hung between them for a long moment. Neither of them moved, neither of them breathed, and - for a moment - Percy wasn’t sure if he existed at all, suspended as he felt. 

“Percy,” Vex began, Vex slowly lifting her head, though her gaze remained on her glass. If he focused he could feel both the fabric of his pillow beneath his cheek and the solid wood of floor beneath his feet concurrently, his brain somehow whizzing all over the place while remaining deathly silent, hanging on Vex’s every word. 

“…I’m pregnant.”

She said the words as one usually says something they’re ashamed about, quick enough for them to leave the lips without lingering, but the Vex by the window looked up at him, eyes meeting his, and Percy almost fell over at the intensity of her gaze, and Percy himself was not expecting such a realization in this dream and he suddenly felt the weight of the duvet heavy across his legs-

“I don’t know why I can’t just wait until you’re awake, but I needed to say it once,” she was saying, even as Percy felt the him standing in the living room disappear and the him in the bed come back to himself, “but I haven’t told anyone yet, and I just couldn’t bring myself to tell you tonight before we went to bed-”

“You shouldn’t be drinking whiskey.”

“Percy?”

Percy groaned, reaching out, trying to grab the glass from her and hitting something soft instead. “Why do you have whiskey? You shouldn’t be- why are you drinking that? You know better-”

“Darling, I haven’t been drinking,” Vex said with a chuckle, her hand wrapping around his grabbing fingers, though her voice sounded thick. “But were you just awake for all of that?”

“A little bit?” he said, not entirely sure. “But you definitely had whiskey. Where’d my whiskey go? I think I might need it.”

He opened his eyes and squinted around, his immediate surroundings blurry and indistinct. 

“I don’t think you had any whiskey, darling,” Vex chuckled, though her voice caught and Percy saw the colors that made up her image shudder. 

Blinking himself back to a bit more awareness, Percy shook his head and sat up, using her hand as support as he realized what was going on. 

“I’m sorry, still a bit groggy,” Percy said, pushing himself up and fumbling his fingers around the nightstand, looking for his glasses. When he’d found them he slipped them on, and was treated to the sight of Vex, knees pulled to her chest, eyes bright with tears as she looked at him. “But Vex, this is fantastic!”

As he woke up a bit more, Percy felt both elated and rather terrified, but he couldn’t keep a smile off his face as he edged an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest when she didn’t shrug him off. 

“Really?” she asked, sniffing and dabbing at her eyes with the sheets.

“Absolutely,” Percy said, bringing his other hand around to her cheek and pulling her closer for a kiss. “You’re really pregnant?” 

“The tests said so,” she said, sniffing again. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess - I’m just- I don’t know-”

“It’s hormones, so I’m told,” murmured Percy into her hair. It was what Keyleth had said whenever she broke into tears over one of her flowers blooming while she was pregnant. 

“What, already?” Vex scoffed, and Percy chuckled, holding her tighter, the sleepiness having all but faded from his mind. 

“There’s always hormones in your body,” Percy pointed out, and Vex groaned, poking his shoulder. “There’s just more now.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know that,” Vex mumbled, closing her eyes with a sigh and resting her forehead against Percy’s chest. “But what are we supposed to do? We don’t know how to be parents!”

“I think that’s where parenting books can come in handy,” Percy said, running his fingers down her back. “And, you know, the real-life experience that Keyleth and your brother have, so they can give us advice.”

“Fair point,” Vex admitted, chuckling. She pulled away from his chest and kissed his cheek. “I just worry we’re going to mess it up, somehow.”

“That’s understandable - it’s a scary thing,” Percy said, bringing her forehead to his and running his thumb over her ear. 

“Honestly, I’m surprised you’re not freaking out more right now,” Vex confessed.

“I think a lot of my lack of concern is due to how tired I am right now.”

“Well, to be fair, Darling, I thought you were out cold. I’m sorry for waking you, by the way.”

“Don’t be sorry, Dear,” Percy said, kissing Vex gently on the lips. “It was a wonderful surprise.”

“It was certainly a surprise to me,” she said with an airy chuckle. But she kissed him again and when she pulled back he was glad to see that the tears were gone from her eyes. 

“Are you ready to sleep, so we can celebrate in the morning?” Percy asked, running a thumb down her cheek. 

“Sleep honestly sounds wonderful right now,” Vex admitted, yawning. “But will things feel different in the morning?

“I might have a nervous breakdown about being a parent, yes,” Percy said truthfully, reaching down to interlace his fingers with Vex’s, though he couldn’t keep the stupid grin off his face. “I will promise you right now, though, that this is one of the happiest moments of my life.”

“Glad to hear it, Darling,” Vex murmured, squeezing his fingers and laying down onto her pillows once again, pulling him down with her, and curling into his chest. 

They laid there together in silence for a long moment - long enough for Percy’s sleep-addled brain to start drifting off again - when Vex twisted around so her back was pressed up against his chest, her legs curled around his, and she pulled his arm over her waist. 

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she mumbled.