#snowflake!!

Snowflake: any season

I rush past midday lunch crowd all bunched together under the light snow, trying to make it to the corner on time. Mulder had texted me, something I was still getting used to, and said meet him in front of some shop downtown at noon and I was barely going to make it on time. Not that I should be overly concerned—it’s not like he was exactly punctual himself.

Last night’s ice with today’s snow flurries have made the sidewalk slippery and I almost bit it a few times, cursing the fashion industry for refusing to put tread on women’s boots.

One more block and—there! I could see him, standing on the corner, rubbing his bare hands together in the cold. He caught sight of me a half second later and before I knew it I was in front of him.

Expecting him to launch into an explanation, I waited for him to speak but instead he seemed fixated on something just above my head.

“Well, why am I here?” I asked when he said nothing.

Jolted out of whatever thought he was having he turned and guided me toward a very, very narrow alleyway I hadn’t noticed before. “Sorry. We’re here to investigate—one of my local cop contacts emailed me about a case. Last weekend he was chasing a thief, and the guy darted down this alley.”

“More of a crack between buildings than an alley, Mulder.” There was barely enough room for me to see around his back as I followed him down the alley.

“Exactly. My contact continued the chase, but abruptly came to here—no perp in sight.”We stopped at the end of the passageway that led rather abruptly to a dead end, no doors or connecting alleys in sight.

“So he just-“ I started, shivering in the darker and windier alleyway.

“Disappeared. Yes.”

Mulder turned to me in the partly shadowed passage, holding my shoulders so we didn’t bump into the walls. We were close. Very close. I strained my neck slightly to look at him, suddenly feeling warmer.

“Vanished. Ran through the wall, ran up the wall, something. My contact couldn’t figure out what happened and never caught the guy. Hence why we’re standing here.”

I looked up. The buildings on all sides went up at least three floors, no ladders or stairs through the whole length of the alleyway.

“There must be a hidden door, or maybe even trap door under all this snow.”

Mulder hummed. We were so close that I felt the vibrations in his chest before hearing it. My eyes went back to him, noticing he was fixated on my face again.

“What are you looking at?” I asked, exasperated and wondering what the hell was in my hair.

He said nothing, but reached up and brushed at my hair with the back of his fingers. I was frozen, not wanting to startle him in this uncharacteristically gentle moment. The wind seemed to stand still, crowds too far away to make noise.

“Snowflake,” he murmured, and before I could register he was moving in, his hand moved to the back of my head and his lips came down to meet mine.

It was a sweet, chaste kiss, made in the meeting of frozen lips. An uncontrolled, inevitable action, both welcomed and wanted for so, so long.

We pulled back after indeterminable seconds. I didn’t feel the panic in my chest I always thought I would. Instead I felt calm. Rightness.

“I thought it was mistletoe we were supposed to kiss under,” I murmured back, wanting him to know I wasn’t about to run.

I felt him relax at my words, visibly calmer with a wide smile to go along with it.

“We can do that too.”

I nodded and tugged on his scarf, bring him back down to me, making the most out of being in a tiny alleyway with my partner.