#sagan-starstuff

shawntaw's Typing Scully frowned. As she approached wakefulness, she gasped and scrambled upright and away, falling off the bed with a thump as she did.

Aghast, she rose to her knees and looked into her bed. It was Mulder alright. Surprisingly, her antics had not awoken him. He lay so peacefully, his arm still outstretched from where it had been around her.

Post-Born Again Scully learns more about Mulder's night terrors.

@leiascully's (Ao3)

Adrift (Ao3) But her bed cradled him and his eyes were closing. He caught his breath in panic, a sob catching in his throat. She put a cool washcloth on his forehead.

There was nobody like Scully.

He wanted to tell her.

But the body, the body, the red blood and the white sheet. The air was smeared with color.

Anasazi Mulder feels safe with Scully.

Mulder just looks at Scully and genuinely say 'you're soooo pretty' “I won’t forget that you’re beautiful,” he says, after a moment. He’s looking at her like his eyes can’t quite focus. He reaches out and touches her arm. It seems to reassure him that she is where he perceives her to be.

Scully dissects diction with her loopy partner.

@o6666666's AU where...  and Is... is it cruel to request more... He’s freezing cold.

He wants to be next to her, on her couch, under a blanket so badly he shakes with it; it brings tears to his eyes; he wants to feel warm; he just wants to rest his head on her shoulder; he just wants to rest.

By the time he reaches Quantico, he wishes he didn’t drive there himself, what with his blurry vision, his migrainous head.

AU-- Mulder has cancer instead.

@fbismostunwanted1158's What if during Demons, Scully had gotten in the bath with Mulder to warm him up? “Mulder, let’s—“

“Mm...c-can you ju-st ho-ld me, Sc-cully?” Tone so innocent. Raw. Void of anything but need and honesty.

AU-- Demons Mulder can't warm up.

spookycc's Vixen's Valhalla She tried to swallow, and her throat hurt, but other than that, there was no pain. Trying to remember what had happened, trying to ascertain where she was, she glanced over to her right, and befell a sight that brought a very weak smile to her paled features. At the end of her right arm, obscuring her hand, was a very tousled, sleeping Mulder's head.

Scully takes a bullet for Mulder.

@i-gaze-at-scully/i_gaze_at_scully's Sarcasm 113 By the time she closes the door behind them, she only has a hand on his forearm, and he’s very intently, very deliberately lifting her fingers off one by one. He examines each of them with wide eyes, searching her crop circle fingerprints for some sort of clue, before dropping them off his arm.

Scully tries to manage a partner strung out on pain meds.

ofmulder's Just a Cold "A dog???" He seemed overly excited for some reason beyond her comprehension, "Where?"

"There, Mulder." Scully pointed at the silhouette of the dog who'd stopped right in front of the car and was now staring at the car.

"You see, Scully?" Mulder began with a very serious voice, one she knew as his 'lecturer voice', "The forest isn't the only place where ancient Fauna and Flora reside..."

Scully is frustrated then amused.

baronessblixen's

44 Msr please! “I thought you might not be home.” Scully was prepared to be angry with him; it’s late and he is, albeit unknowingly, crashing her solitary movie night. But all her complaints fly out the door when she sees his pale complexion, his glassy eyes. 

“Mulder, what is the matter? Are you sick?” 

Mulder turns up with an injured wrist (on pain meds.)

When It Rains “Not drunk,” he repeats. “I wasn’t feeling well,” he says. “I just- there were pills in the medicine cabinet. I took them. The first didn’t do anything, so I took something else.” Her alarm bells are ringing.

“What did you take?” she asks and he just shrugs.

“I thought it was Tylenol. Wait. I think the other was Benadryl. My throat was so itchy.”

“Mulder, you don’t have any allergies.”

Post-Triangle Mulder winds up at Scully’s doorstep.

something set during Per Manum (Ao3) “Mulder,” she says, suppressing a giggle, “I’m not made of glass.”

But she’s wrong there, he thinks, as he keeps his arms around, leading her inside her apartment by taking tiny steps as if he’d just learned to walk. In many ways, he feels like he has. There’s precious cargo between them. Right now, at this very moment, her egg and his sperm are getting to know each other, deciding whether or not there’s a future for them. Mulder, always the believer, hopes there is.

After their IVF procedure, Mulder vows to pamper his partner for the weekend.

Berries “Is he drunk?” Bill mutters into Scully’s ear.

“No,” Scully tells him and wonders if she’s maybe said it too quickly, “he hurt himself on a case and they gave him too many painkillers."

"You expect me to believe that?” It does sound stupid, she realizes. 

S6 Scully brings her loopy partner to the family Christmas.

Cow-incidences He closes his eyes, only to pop them open again after a few minutes. It could be wishful thinking, but she thinks they look clearer already; the dark clouds moving away, making way for his brilliant mind to shine through.

“Will you stay?” he asks, his voice deep and gravelly.

“Of course I’ll stay,” she assures him, taking his hand in hers. “I’ll be here when you wake up again.”

Mulder has yet another accident involving a cow.

Healing Powers “I can feel my nose,” he explains. “Is that normal? Scully, do you feel your nose?”

“You can have another dose of med before bed, Mulder.”

“Your nose, Scully,” he says, touching his finger to her nose, booping it softly. “You have a cute nose. Do you feel it?”

Mulder wants a kiss to heal faster.

A New Beginning (Ao3) “In how much pain are you?”

“Right now? None. I’m looking at you.” Any other time, she might have rolled her eyes or call him crazy, but he’s so serious, so earnest.

“You still need to take them, though, all right?” He nods at her.

“Doing everything you say, Dr. Scully.”

“Since when?”

“Since last night.”

Post-Millennium Scully and Mulder and the new year.

Chilly Nights (Ao3) He knocks as quietly as he can and waits. There’s no noise on the other side of the door. Fear starts niggling at him. What if Scully is not well and she’s all on her own? He knocks again, this time more forcefully.

“Mulder?” There she is. The love of his life in a winter coat and a comforter that almost dwarfs her.

“I was worried,” he says. “I texted you and then you didn’t open the door.”

“It’s 2 a.m.,” she says with a yawn.

Revival Mulder and Scully bundle up in her cold motel room.

Lea Nicci's (LJ) West of Sunrise - Part 1/2 and West of Sunrise - Part 2/2 (Gossamer) "I was worried about you," she said, gently, trying her hardest not to sound accusing. "Are you okay?"

He laughed dryly. "I'd say `okay' is a relative term." With a grimace, he rolled over and reached for a bottle sitting on the table next to the abandoned plate. He handed it to her with a glum expression. "But the FBI shrink thinks I could use a round of this."

AU-- S5 Scully realizes her partner is severely depressed.

35-leukothea's Tell Me “Sit up and drink all of that,” she instructs, trying to be gentle but still firm, and holds out the medicine for him. He takes it, swallows it dry, then downs half the glass in one go. Then he takes out the straw and bites on it.

“The water, Mulder,” she reminds him.

He finishes the rest of it, then lies back on the bed and pulls her down with him. She inhales sharply, surprised, but does not move away. His hand curls around her bicep like he wants to make sure she’s still real, and Scully thinks he doesn’t realize how much he anchors her to reality by doing so.

Post-The End Scully is there for her partner.

@msrafterglow/msrafterdark's 92 :) But something is different now. Ever since he breathed those frightening, precious three words into the shell of her ear three nights ago, something has broken open in her, become raw and new and vulnerable. They haven’t slept together yet, but he knows it’s going to be any day now, if the open longing he keeps seeing on her face is any indication.

Post-Triangle Mulder notices some changes.

@is-on-its-way/Ophelia_is_a_nun's Sea Mystery (Ao3) She picked her head up and rubbed her face. He wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t been drugged. And thats all that mattered.

Post-Triangle Mulder and Scully navigate his loopy confession.

@sunflowerseedsandscience/sunflowerseedsandscience‘s Someday Your Child May Cry: Chapter 9 In the hallway outside of Mulder’s hospital room, Scully leans up against the wall, covering her eyes with a shaking hand. Skinner and the Gunmen have, thankfully, already gone down to the hospital lobby to wait for her, and are not here to witness her mini-breakdown following Mulder’s unexpected confession.

He’s drugged, she reminds herself firmly. He has no idea what he’s saying. The best thing you can do for both of you is to go downstairs, go back to the hotel, let him sleep and sober up, and not speak of this again unless he brings it up first.

And yet, her feet are carrying her back into his hospital room.

AU-- IVF arc Mulder and Scully stumble their way to success.

@sunlightscully's north to the future (Beautitudes) He cradles his hand and shakes, almost imperceptibly. She can feel it through his clothes, could feel it from across the room when she first walked in.

He’s alive, she thinks, alive, alive, alive, and can think of nothing else.

Later, in private, he clutches at her with his good hand. She can feel him shaking now across the expanse of his mattress. “Thank you,” he’d said when she offered to drive him home, and she’d wanted to say it back a thousand times, ten thousand times, because earlier she’d had time to think about what her life would be like without him and it had been difficult to imagine.

Now he trembles. You’re alive, she thinks to him. It will be okay because you are alive.

The FBI duo support each other through tragedies.

@cassiopeia462/Cassiopeia12727's One Bed. one Night. There was a moment in which they were just gazing at each other, her body frozen mid-movement, not quite lying and not quite sitting, with his hand still firmly, but gently, around her wrist. Scully's heart was beating more rapidly again, not knowing where this was going. The night had been humming with the sound of crickets and racket from the AC unit, but it suddenly seemed as if everything had fallen silent.

Scully helps Mulder fall asleep... and is surprised he doesn't want her to go.

@thatfragilecapricorn30's (Ao3) laughing gas (Ao3) A wave of affection swept through Scully. She looked down at Mulder, who seemed ready to fall asleep, and squeezed his hand. Even though his eyes were mostly closed, he still smiled and squeezed her hand back. Oh boy, was Scully in trouble now. She had been in love with him for some time now but seeing him act so sweet and happy towards her was making all her buried feelings rush to the surface in an overwhelming swarm of emotion.

Mulder has a dental procedure.

@laurencem's (Ao3) besotted (Ao3) “Maybe. Maybe I’ve been thinking about taking you out the right way for a while. Maybe I don’t know why I’ve waited so long.”

Clatter on the roof - a sudden downpour. She startles upward, pulse racing, and his arm tightens around her, pulling her back to earth.

A loopy Mulder (and Scully) makes dinner reservations.

@starwalker42's (Ao3) "can you hear me?" In the real image of me, my body relaxes, and I sway towards her – she reaches for me – that’s it, Mulder, it’s me, it’s okay – and then the door opens.

Biogenesis Mulder focuses on Scully during his torment.

Sarah Segretti's (Ao3) A Less Certain World (Ao3) When I finally open my eyes again, the apartment is dark. Soft lips press just above my left ear. "You're doing better, Mulder," Scully whispers, her mouth forming a small smile against my cropped hair. "That one only lasted about half an hour."

A few cracks about length and stamina and endurance cross my raw and bleeding mind, but I'm too exhausted to organize them into a sentence. "Stop keeping score, Scully. I've already done the lab rat thing."

"Sorry." She kisses me again and sits up. I know her. She'll still keep track, but she'll keep the results to herself. There's a lot she's still keeping to herself - to protect me, I think, the way I used to protect her from things I thought she didn't need to know.

AU-- Amor Fati Mulder was able to be cured... at a cost.

Defnotmeyo's What does the frog say? “Sounds like my vacuum cleaner.”

“Like you’d know what a vacuum sounds like.”

He grins loopily at her and she’s torn under the tide in affection for him. His stupid tie and his stupid yellow pajama pants and his stupid hair cut.

Signs and Wonders Mulder is shocked at bullfrogs.

Andrea's In Amor, Vis Vires Most of the time Scully seemed so remote; keeping her feelings closely guarded. But earlier, during the shave, for a split second I thought I'd finally seen how she felt about me. I could have been mistaken. I was probably only seeing her concern for my health, but it felt like something deeper.

Post-En Ami TLG and Scully spirit an injured Mulder away to England where she doctors him back to health. Their mission: to uncover yet another Consortium plot. His mission: to prove his feelings for Scully.

@singeart/singeart's For What Ails You “I came over today to make you feel better, " he chided, making her laugh.

Scully calls in sick, Mulder drops by later, and both discuss their sisters.

@sagan-starstuff/sagan_starstuff's And how did that work out? “I swore I labelled that takeout.” “You did. A week ago. And how did that work out for you?”

Mulder is sick, and Scully is there.

A. Kelley Nolan's Have a Nice Trip "Mulder, look at me," she says quietly. I do, of course, because she's Scully and I'd do anything for her. And there she is, looking at me. I feel a little misty myself, just like that geeky kid in the lab. Scully looks deep into my eyes. Oh, hey, baby. I'm right here. She frowns a little.

"Agent Scully?" Skinner prompts. "He'd better be having a stroke."

Mulder's colorblindness causes a minor problem.

xraelynn/Rachel Noble‘s Breathing Room "Stay...with me, Scully," he says.

Scully's smile is genuine and a little sad. "Always, Mulder," she says softly. She rubs his fingers with hers as his breathing begins to even out, some of the wheezing sounds gone from it.

Scully's eyes are somehow apologetic as she turns to me.

Brand X Mulder doesn’t want his partner to leave.

RivkaT - MustangSally‘s Syadiloh 3 : Y2K (Ao3) Mulder sniffled and turned to go into the bathroom. I heard banging noises as he raided the cabinets, but I knew how Mulder usually dealt with sickness and I wasn't going to brave the lion's den unless he was in actual danger of bleeding out on the floor.

When he came back, his lips were red and sticky with syrup, but he was coherent enough to drive us over to Zippy's for the party.

AU-- Mulder helps deliver their child while high on drugs.

@touchstoneaf's (Ao3) Amor Fati: Destinata (The Fated Love) Act Two and Amor Fati: The Fated Love” Act III “I was there,” she murmured into his shoulder.  /I’ll always be here./  He could accept it now.  She was finally able to press her arms about him in the night.  Feel the strong bones beneath unblemished flesh; amazed that he was even alive for her to hold after an ordeal that had indeed taken him from her for so long that she had lost all hope.  She shuddered and cinched her arms tighter; felt his ribs shift beneath the silky envelope of his skin.  They creaked in protest, but he did not move, and she spoke like one driven.  “I was there hurting for you, holding you against the nightmares, even when you couldn't ask me to be there.  I was with you every night until you came back to me.” 

AU-- S9 Scully, who left home with William (Act One), is at last reunited with her partner. They dodge danger, attempt to dismantle the Conspiracy, and carefully discuss their respective trauma.

MaybeAmanda/maybe_amanda's (LJ, xffics) Under Construction (xffic) "It's okay," she said, without missing a beat. "I'm glad you called." We rolled past the playground on the corner, the best- in-district red brick grade school next to the ball field, and splashed our way through the pothole on Drury Lane that the town was supposed to have fixed by now. A jet of only slightly filthy water shot up and spread-eagled itself against the window beside me and I didn't flinch. Go me.

I looked down at my hands. The knuckles on my right hand were raw and bloody. I hadn't hit anyone, but Scully and I had been discussing renovations before I went out for my run, so in my own misguided way I might have tried to take out a wall. "I took my meds." My voice was small and scared and at that moment, suited me perfectly. I hated it.

AU-- A recovering post-NIHT Mulder must sort between his faulty memories and upended existence: a medicated family man uncertain where he fits.

@monikafilefan's (Ao3) Pre-IWTB at the unremarkable house Scully scoffs, and his cheek suddenly feels bereft without her thumb arcing across it. “You’re high, Mulder.” 

“High on my love for you,” he coos.

Pre-IWTB Mulder injures himself at the Unremarkable House.

@atths--twice's (Ao3, FFN) I’ve Got You “Mulder, we’re not going to talk about this when you’re doped up on painkillers.” 

“I think you would make a lovely bride,” he said, licking his lips. Rolling his eyes to look at her, it took him a second to focus on her face. “Hi. When did you get here?” 

“Mulder,” she said, shaking her head and laughing. 

Post-IWTB Scully is alerted after Mulder injures himself.

@sisterspooky1013/SisterSpooky1013/Sister Spooky‘s The Things We Lost “Mulder, you’re overreacting. I’m sure you’re fine. You’re not going to miss anything.” Normally she’d be annoyed at his catastrophizing and dramatics, but he seems so genuinely afraid that she can’t be mad at him. “Let’s think back through the morning and when you started feeling unwell. What did you do today?”

He closes his eyes to aid in his memory recall. 

“I got up and went for a run. Took a shower. Made coffee. Smacked your ass when you were getting things out of the fridge to make breakfast.” He cracks an eye to catch her smirk, then closes it again. “Sat on the couch. Took my blood pressure medication and brought you your vitamin. Ate breakfast. That’s when I started feeling sick.”

Post-MSIV Mulder flashes over the failures of his past, afraid he'll miss his family's future.

CONCLUSION

Thanks for reading~

While Mulder is still in hiding, Scully goes to do some training out of state. She’s away over Valentine’s Day.

Title: Heaven Scent

Author: admiralty, @admiralty-xfd

Summary: Scully is away, and missing Mulder. (Also, he smells like heaven, but we all knew that.)

Length: 4,888

Classification: MSR, pining

Rating: PG

Spoilers: pre-IWTB

Favorite line: She lifted the shirt to her face, breathing him in, remembering another night when she did the same and felt only hopelessness and loss. This time, she knew exactly where he was. He was only a thousand miles away, here on earth, thinking about her, too.

-------------------------------------------

We hate Diana, but we love seeing her thwarted.

Title: Cancelled Plans

Author: ScullyLovesQueequeg, @suitablyaggrieved

Summary: Diana Fowley asks Mulder out on a date.

Length: 4,597

Classification: MSR, Jealous Scully

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Post FTF, Diana is there

Favorite line: Mulder turned partway to face her and gave Scully one of his wry smiles. Since Antarctica, the smiles came so easy.

-------------------------------------------

Short and sweet fluff, Mulder embracing celebrating the holiday more than Scully.

Title: Love is in the Air

Author: mldrgrl, @mldrgrl

Summary: Just a bit of Valentine's Day fluff set in season 7

Length: 771

Classification: MSR, fluff

Rating: G

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: “But, it’s got Snoopy on it and everything.  I think he’s holding up a little sign that says ‘Be Mine’ or something like that.”

“Shut up and kiss me, you idiot.”

“No, that’s not what it says.”

-------------------------------------------

A pair of fics that are very hot and very satisfying, each in their own way.

Title: Impatient and Intent

Author: Beduini

Summary: Impatient: Sometimes you just can't wait. Season 6 Valentine’s day smut. Intent: A companion piece to Intent. What constitutes a fantasy?

Length: 1,621 and 1,515

Classification: MSR

Rating: E

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: Impatient: Her blue eyes flashed and a smile of pleasure broke out across her face as she ducked her head, trying to hide behind the wave of hair that was now too short to cover her face.

Intent: "Scully..." spoken as if all of the secrets of the universe could be housed in one name.

-------------------------------------------

This is one to sit with and enjoy, like a glass of good wine. Lying together in bed, Mulder thinks about his life and his relationship with Scully. It’s not fluff but that good MSR is present and correct.  

Title: Sedimentation

Author: Maria Nicole

Summary: Musings on the edge of sleep

Length: 2,302

Classification: MSR

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Orison, Fire

Favorite line: He and Scully will have to muddle through this on their own; maybe every so often she can deliver a State of the Partnership address, Scully in her glasses standing behind a podium telling him that their teamwork skills are good but their communication skills need work and Jesus, Mulder, she'd come to his room with wine and cheese and what had he thought she'd meant? 

-------------------------------------------

We are truly indebted to @lilydalexf for her rec of this otherwise impossible (?) to find fic. It is short and sweet and it is also tremendous. I love everything about it and somehow the thing I love the most is him calling her disgusting at the very end (to be fair, she is being disgusting).  

Title: it could be sweet

Author: wen

Summary: MSR valentines day no redeeming value fluff fluff fluff.

Length: 1,541

Classification: MSR, fluff

Rating: Not rated

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: She adored this gentleness about him and let him kiss her, very long and very soft, his mouth and tongue tasting of very rich dark chocolate and marshmallows.

-------------------------------------------

Sweet little fic from the olden days with a guest star.

Title: My Funny Valentine

Author: Britt Mulder

Summary: Scully has a secret admirer.

Length: 1,646

Classification: MSR

Rating: PG

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: She began to pepper kisses below his ear. Mulder didn't know why he was getting all this attention, but liked it.

-------------------------------------------

A more recent entry, there’s misunderstanding, there’s jealousy, there’s dopey adoration.

Title: Stupid Cupid

Author: mulderwearingglasses, @mulderwearingglasses

Summary: When a work emergency prompts the FBI to call in their best and brightest on Valentine's Day evening, Mulder shows up in a tuxedo, prompting Scully to wonder what kind of hot date he had just abandoned.

Scully must quiet the jealous storm brewing within as the two work together to search for a little boy.

Scully soon finds all is not as it seems, and maybe this won't be the worst Valentine's Day, after all.

Length: 5,325

Classification: MSR, UST, URT, hurt/comfort

Rating: G

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: Well, they were quite literally always together, but they weren’t together together. They simply called each other in the middle of the night when one or the other had a nightmare and knew each other’s coffee order depending on coffee chain and had spare clothes at each other’s places and nursed each other back from the brink of death on countless occasions and had broken down in each other’s arms and spent too many a tension-filled evening falling in love in clandestine seclusion on a shitty motel bed over styrofoam boxes of lukewarm takeout.

-------------------------------------------

This is a fun Mulder spiralling fic with a nice, fluffy ending.

Title: Suck it, Superman

Author: RationalCashew, @rationalcashew

Summary: Very early relationship. Season 7.

Their relationship is new. Things are going great. And, then, Mulder realizes that it's Valentine's Day and he's planned absolutely nothing.

Length: 2,433

Classification: MSR

Rating: PG

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: He’d gone through a million buzzing thoughts from the coffee table to the door. Including, but not limited to: the night was already ruined and she was going to dump him before they really had a chance to see what happened with this thing; his shirt was terrible and he should’ve changed it; if she dumped him, would she still work with him?

-------------------------------------------

A misunderstanding leads to some forward movement for our lovable idiots.

Title: Mixed Signals

Author: OnlyTheInevitable, @gaycrouton

Summary: Scully gets flowers from a secret admirer and that, combined with the way Mulder's been acting, prompts her to be honest with herself.

Length: 3,170

Classification: MSR, fluff

Rating: PG

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: “Her secret admirer. He’s been pining after her for years and she’s finally decided to take pity on him,” he told him seriously.

-------------------------------------------

Short and sweet old school Valentine’s fic from Donna. Scully’s down and Mulder figures out why. 

Title: February 14

Author: Donna

Summary: Valentine’s Day Ditty

Length: 717

Classification: MSR

Rating: G

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: "Well, you may not realize it but it is Valentine’s Day. You give pretty girls things on Valentine’s Day." Her eyebrow rose, but she didn’t comment, just picking up the box and heading toward the kitchen.

-------------------------------------------

Annika’s story of their first (belated) Valentine’s Day as a couple. Absolutely adorable.

Title: Valentine’s Day is a State of Mind

Author: Baroness_Blixen, @baronessblixen

Summary: Scully thinks Mulder has a case for them but as it turns out, Mulder has planned something else entirely.

Length: 1,251

Classification: MSR, Fluff

Rating: PG

Spoilers: 

Favorite line: “Okay fine, it was three weeks ago. Anyway, you were talking about going to a restaurant and how you haven’t been to a fancy place in ages and I thought, hey, as your bo- your partner?” He sighs before he goes on, “as your Mulder, I should do this. Remember when I asked you about having dinner the other day?”

-------------------------------------------

There’s the language of flowers, there’s an FBI ball, there’s Diana, there’s declarations of love and there’s smut. What more could you ask for on Valentine’s Day?

Title: ‘Til Stars Align

Author: MonikaFileFan, @monikafilefan

Summary: Mulder and Scully are currently stuck under Kersh’s thumb and banned to the bullpen. It’s the week of Valentine’s Day and Scully also finds herself under romantic admiration from another.

Length: 21,806

Classification: MSR, fluff and smut

Rating: E

Spoilers: 

Neither one of them would consider the "FBI Annual Christmas Celebration" as a great way to spend a Friday evening after a long week of work. Both of them would rather be home, watching a good movie and ordering a pizza (Mulder's ideal evening) or taking a long bath with a glass of wine and a book (Scully's idea of a good night).

Here they were however, sitting at a long table with fellow agents conversing over drinks and Hors d'Ouerves. Scully nibbled on a few crackers on her plate and sipped slowly on a glass of merlot. She was switching to water in a few minutes, knowing she had to drive home. Meanwhile, Mulder was staring at his bottle of beer, attempting to pay attention to the "hilarious" story of Agent Thompson's golden retriever stealing a pie the past Thanksgiving but not succeeding. He envied Scully's ability to at least look interested though he sensed her mind was likely elsewhere too.

Scully noticed how bored Mulder looked. The two had been lucky to find two empty seats next to each other. She was at the point however where she was thinking of reasons to get up and leave this thing. It was almost 9 PM. She had used the restroom excuse twice as had Mulder. Luckily, three other agents ended up deciding to call it a night and it was a good chance for her to politely make her exit. She lightly tapped Mulder's foot under the table and subtly nudged his knee.

"Well, I need to get going" Mulder said, standing up and putting his bottle in the recycling bin. Scully followed him.

"Good night, happy holidays!" she said as she left the table.

"See you next year!" one agent said to them. "Haha" Mulder thought. Like he hadn't already heard that one a million times. He was surprised to not see Scully rolling her eyes but he also knew she was far too polite to do that.

As they walked away, Scully thought she heard somebody say her name. She peeked over her shoulder to see two agents whispering and one was pointing at Mulder. Despite it not having been very long since she began working with Mulder and only about a month since she had returned to the FBI after being in the hospital, she was very familiar with the rumors surrounding them every day. "Mrs. Spooky" she would hear others calling her when they didn't realize she was listening.

"Whatever" she thought as she headed into the basement to grab her coat and purse. She had stopped caring a long time ago. If that was all they had to say about her, she didn't think it was that bad.

Mulder wasn't bad either. She had heard about the lengths he had gone to after Duane Barry took her from her apartment and before she found herself in a hospital bed with wires attached to her whole body and her mother and sister surrounding her as she began to wake up and come to. Despite having no memory of how she ended up there, she had remembered the moment Mulder had walked into the room. Not a lot of people would do all that for a coworker, she knew once he told her all about it.

He was different from anybody else she had ever met.

He was special.

Dana Scully was also not someone who didn't plan things through. She was always known among her family, friends, and colleagues as somebody dependable and reliable.

However, she also knew that some risks are worth taking. On her way out, she decided to make one pit stop before getting in the elevator.

--------------

When she entered their basement office, Mulder was collecting his belongings and looking for his coat. He could have sworn he left it by the door, maybe he put it on a chair? It wasn't on his desk either.

"Scully, I think I deserve extra presents this year. I was a very good boy and I resisted several urges to just walk out or tell Skinner I had an annoyance-induced headache" he said.

"Well", Scully thought. She had her own little gift for him. They had agreed to not exchange anything more than cards this year. Everything he had done for his this past year was already the greatest gift a girl could get.

"Mulder, I did something a little naughty before leaving the party" she said, with a sly smile

"Oh, Scully" Mulder said, curiously "I didn't know you were such a rebel"

Scully reached into the pocket of her tan blazer and pulled out a small piece of mistletoe

She giggled miscevously as she stood on her toes attempting to hold it over Mulder's head. Since she was struggling to do so due to her height (even with her heels), Mulder plucked it out of her hand and placed it over her head.

She turned bright red. Then she went in for the kiss. He met her rosy lips and kissed her back. After a few moments, they pulled away slowly and smiled at each other somewhat shyly.

"Merry Christmas, Scully" Mulder eventually said

"Merry Christmas, Mulder"

----

Thank you so much for reading! I really hope you enjoy this and have a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and an amazing new year! ☺️☺️☺️

Miracles (Ao3) I visited you tonight, Scully. I came into your room while you slept, held your hand, and wept like a child. My father would be so ashamed of me.

Redux II Mulder watches Scully sleep.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 2 Byers and Frohike stare toward the bathroom door. Langly was whistling. Jauntily.

“This is new,” mutters Byers.

“He has a date.”

The Lone Gunmen and Mulder gawk at Langly.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 9 (Ao3) The tricks had been played and the treats dispensed in Scully’s apartment building. She set the bowl on the coffee table and plopped down next to Mulder. He grabbed it and started poking around the leftovers. “Who knew this building had so many kids?”

Scully, Mulder, and trick-or-treating.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 12 (Ao3) Pencil after pencil buries itself in the drop ceiling. Scully’s surprisingly impressed by his consistency. He leans back in his chair, feet on the desk, eyes cast upward but unfocused. 

Who can resist throwing pencils?

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 5 (Ao3) Wincing, “They just found another body. It’s five minutes behind me.”

Her face falls. “But you promised!”

His hand at the small of her back, “I know, I know. I'm sorry. How about this - we’re in Wisconsin, you know what that means.” 

Scully's back-to-back autopsies and promised sustenance.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 6 (Ao3) A beat of silence. He leaned over and gently pulled her small, precise hands away from her face, cocooning them in his larger ones. He rested them on the console between them, torso turned a little awkwardly but it was worth it because she was allowing him this gesture. Her skin was icy but his palms burned as if he held a hot coal instead. Their eyes met. Hers flashed with something he could not trust himself to identify but had great hopes for. 

Mulder and Scully discuss traffic and psychic powers.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 18 (Ao3) The stakeout was a bust, so they sat shoulder-to-shoulder on the hood of the car. 

Stakeouts and the universe.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 8 (Ao3) Rigid but adaptable. Petite and impeccable but tough and tenacious as a terrier. Cool eyes and fiery opinions. She’ll laugh at his jokes and flirtation, but never at his ideas.

The x-Files duo are a paradox.

Conversations (Ao3) She traded her envelope for the binder he extracted from underneath the teetering stack and they both got to work, passing the morning companionably working on the less glamorous aspects of being federal employees. A bit after lunch she was in the middle of summarizing some anomalous mass spectrometry results when she heard something small hit the back of her laptop screen. She looked up to see Mulder apparently engrossed in a book about crop circles but her suspicions rose when his eyes flicked to hers over the top of the cover. Peering down over the top of her screen, she spied a small orange heart lying on her desk with the words ‘WHAT’S UP’ written on it.

A smile crept onto her face. “Mulder-” she started but was silenced when he rattled his box of hearts and nodded encouragingly at hers.

Season 6, Valentine's Day, and candy hearts in the bullpen.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 17 (Ao3) “Fox, it’s Diana. We should talk.”

Post-One Son Mulder doesn't trust his former partner.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 21 His shoes were suddenly fascinating. “I didn’t think Diana would betray me.”

A finger-gloved hand on his shoulder. “She didn’t betray only you. But I get it, man.”

Post-One Son Mulder and Frohike have a necessary chat.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 3 (Ao3) Because I can’t forgive you out loud yet. Because you went to the end of the world to save me. Because I need you to forgive my fear. 

Post-Agua Mala Mulder asks why his partner cares for him.

I have to let her(him) in  The last thing she remembered was the cold, hateful gaze of the man pressing her to the floor with one hand and reaching into her chest with another. She felt the impossible squeeze of his fingers around her heart, felt it struggle against his hand with her flesh torn open and burning as blood poured from the gash. An entire clip of bullets couldn’t stop him - all she could do was scream. How could that be? How could a man be solid enough to carve a hole in her chest and yet so insubstantial that bullets pass unnoticed? If she were not so afraid she would be fascinated. And then everything stopped, darkness took her. This is how I die.  Mulder will be the one to find me like this.  Mulder.

Post-Milagro Scully and Mulder take refuge in each other.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 13 (Ao3) The distant look in her eyes fell away with a shake of her head, replaced with reticence. “We, um. We haven’t talked yet about what this means, if it even works. For us. How much you’d want to be involved, what it means for our work. I don’t want you to feel obligated to do more than you already are, to…give things you aren’t prepared to give.”

AU-- IVF arc Mulder and Scully have a more personal discussion.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 15 (Ao3) Dana watched Melissa gleam in the golden sun. They were looking out over Coronado Beach. They had come here as girls. It was warm, the glow around her sister. How long had it been?

“So, when are you going to tell him you love him?”

Scully dreams of her sister... and makes a decision.

Counting They stand side by side in the elevator, his good arm draped around her like the most natural thing in the world. He was usually the bolt of lightning waiting to strike but now she’s the one vibrating from head to toe, like at any minute she could jump out of her skin. The doors close and for a moment both stare straight ahead before simultaneously glancing in the other’s direction, and seeing his punch-drunk smile is what tips her over the edge.

Mulder and Scully's kisses through the years.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 16 (Ao3)  If everything else is his life is ripped away, this feeling he will keep forever. Of being whole.

Mulder and Scully are finally close, together.

he Realities of Domesticity (Ao3) With a groan she started back toward her bedroom with the candle when she heard a sound that made freeze in her tracks - the sound of her bathroom door closing. 

Mulder was awake. 

Mulder was awake and had gone into the bathroom.

Mulder was awake and had gone into the bathroom which she’d just turned into a toxic waste dump.

Mulder takes care of his sick (girl)friend.

Round Lake Resorts (Ao3)

Scully responded firmly but warmly, “That's very kind of you to offer, but FBI ethics policy prohibits agents from accepting gifts from family of victims, it wouldn’t be right for us to -” 

Steve shook his head and chuckled, “Ma’am, you can hand me that credit card to make yourself feel better but I'm not going to run it.” He cocked his head to the window where snow was now blowing sideways. “You can take the cabin and our gratitude or sleep in the car, because by the looks of it you all don't have much other choice at this point.” 

Two people are given an unexpected snowed-in vacation-- guess who?

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 7 (Ao3) Mulder was pinned. Trapped, at the mercy of his attacker, who was savaging his neck with her mouth, arms and legs wrapped firmly around his body like a vice. Escape was hopeless.

Mulder tickles his way to freedom.  

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 10 (Ao3) “Are you sure you’re ok with this, Mulder?”

He smiles, “I’m here, am I not?”

Mulder is ready (and Bill is watching.)

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 22 “I swore I labelled that takeout.”

“You did. A week ago. And how did that work out for you?”

“Leave me to die already.”

Scully takes care of her sick (boy)friend.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 4 (Ao3) She pictures herself as a shield, a harbor, a fire in the dark. She is not his mother but she swears once more to her God she will be his protector.

Sein und Zeit Scully consoles a grieving Mulder.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 11 (Ao3) They sit against the bathroom wall, heads in their hands, plastic potty between them, toys scattered on the tile.

AU-- S9(-ish) William refuses to be potty trained.

XF Fictober ‘25 (Ao3) “Are you sure the ice is even thick enough for this?”

He finishes first and hobbles out onto the ice. “Oh I’m sure, I jumped on it like crazy.”

She pauses her struggle with the laces to eye him skeptically. “You jumped on it? And just what would you have done if you’d gone through while I was in bed?”

Pre-IWTB's the Unremarkable House, childhood memories, and ice skating.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 19 (Ao3) Her beauty and grace shone no matter how many wrinkles she had. She’d fought for them. So had he. 

Revival Scully is glad to be home.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 14 She pinches her nose while he strips off the ghillie suit on the porch. 

S11 Mulder's squatchin' mayhaps.

XF Fictober 2025 - Chapter 23, 24 (Ao3) They’d clung together so tightly they shattered and fell apart. It had been a long time picking up again, reassembling themselves out of the wreckage. But the love was always there, always would be, molten between them. 

The Revival survivors are stronger than ever.

Thanks for reading~