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1.
On a chilly Saturday evening at Mulder’s apartment, Scully slipped her stockinged feet into her high heels as he grabbed her coat and scarf for her. He had hoped she’d spend the night, and deep down he knew she felt similarly, but an early rise for Mass with her mother called. They needed to tell Maggie sooner rather than later if she didn’t have her suspicions already.
“Do you want to come over tomorrow night?” Scully asked, slipping her arms into her peacoat. “My fridge needs a cleanout, I have to cook something.”
Knowing that he would come even if the only thing on the menu was air, but understanding the formality of it all, he responded, “Of course. Five?”
“Yeah, five would be perfect.” Standing up on her tiptoes, she pulled him into a kiss. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Once she grabbed her purse and stepped out into the hallway, Mulder locked the door, but not without staring at it just for a moment.
Mulder grabbed the fish flakes from his bookshelf and carefully tapped the bottle above the tank. His mollies swan up excitedly, quickly nipping at their dinner, as Mulder himself sat down on his couch, observing his apartment.
For a so-called bachelor pad, his living space wasn’t terrible. Though he was lacking in the silverware and eating utensil department, he had decor, he had a decent couch with a woven blanket and a rug. Any unseemly VHS tapes were carefully stowed out of sight.
Scully seemed comfortable with him in his space. She had spent a decent amount of time there before all of this, but now, she happily followed him into the kitchen, sitting on the counter while he cooked them breakfast, curled up underneath his blanket on the couch, fell asleep happily beside him in his bed (now with a mattress not filled with water).
He reached forward for the beer bottle on the coffee table in front of him and took a swig.
2.
At Scully’s apartment, Mulder slipped into the bathroom, reaching for the toothbrush and toothpaste on the counter. Scully briefly looked up from applying her mascara, and then carefully returned to it. Her freckles were carefully covered.
The entire scene was, well, incredibly domestic.
He looked over at her hand towels. Last week they’d been a pale blue, but she must have swapped them out for Christmas ones with embroidered holly.
It was an intriguing thought - seasonal holiday towels. It was charming.
“Is everything alright, Mulder?” Scully asked, screwing her mascara back together.
“Yeah, yeah. I like the towels.” He focused on the pea-sized dollop of toothpaste on the brush and ignored her raised brow. “They’re different.”
Scully nodded before turning to the mirror and carefully cleaning a speck of black from her undereye. “My mom came over and asked where all my holiday decorations were. I have some, but I just haven’t had a lot of time to decorate these past few years. I’ve been too busy.”
Duty calls, Mulder thought.
Scully reached for the lipstick carefully placed on her shelf, and while she was focused on applying it, he let himself steal a glance at her routine.
Somehow, he knew its name – Toast of New York. She had lost the lipstick she kept in her purse once on a case and had insisted on stopping at a drugstore to replace it. He had taken a moment to peruse the makeup section.
“They’re really creative with these names, huh? Abstract orange? Wine with Everything?” He gently tapped the display.
“Remind me, Mulder, to take you to look at the nail polish sometime. I would love to know how much the guy who names those is getting paid.”
“More than a g-woman’s salary?
“Probably so.”
She carefully put the lipstick in the handbasket, and they went on their way.
At some point a few weeks later, during his own grocery store trip, he bought a tube of Toast of New York, carefully stowing it in his bathroom cabinet, just in case she needed it.
3.
At some point in the morning, Scully had spilled coffee on herself, staining her crisp white blouse. It had soured her mood for a considerable part of the day, but it luckily had improved by the evening.
“Do you have anything I could spray this with?” Scully asked, observing her blouse, now that they were secluded in his apartment. “It might be done for, but I want to see.”
“Yeah, there’s some spray in there.”
As he returned his attention to washing the dishes he’d left from that morning, he listened to Scully’s soft footsteps over to the laundry closet.
“Mulder?”
Shit. Did he forget to buy more spray?
“Yeah?”
“I didn’t know you were a Tide April Fresh sort of guy.”
He ran back through his last trip to the store. He had needed more laundry detergent, and had usually opted for what he could find on sale.
April Fresh was what Scully had usually opted for.
“Guess it’s grown on me.”
4.
Mulder had grown used to the wide range of paraphernalia in Scully’s bathroom, and regularly used it when he was over. Cucumber & melon shower gel, Thermasilk shampoo, the bubble bath solution she used on the weekends.
“It’s funny sometimes,” Scully said sleepily one night.
“What?”
“After a shower we both smell the same,” she answered, her words mixing into a yawn.
He didn’t mind, really rather liked the quiet space of her routine, and how different it was from his own.
After a morning run, he stepped into Scully’s shower, looking for the shower gel he knew so well. Right next to the bottle, however, was a bar of Irish Spring soap.
Mulder could see it in his mind - Scully carefully considered the aisle before finding the soap he regularly kept in his shower, Scully carefully unwrapping it and placing it there before he came over, just in case he wanted to use it instead.
His heart burned with affection, warmth.
5.
Scully was far from the world’s best liar, and the second she entered his apartment, she was giddy about something.
“I have something for you.”
Mulder, curious, watched as she rummaged through her bag. “I was out with my mother, and I thought this was perfect.” Scully carefully retrieved the item she was looking for and presented it to him.
Sitting in her palm was a small Lochness monster figurine, green and slightly worn. “For your fish tank.”
She passed it to him, and he laughed.
“Thank you. The mollies will love it.”
“And do you?”
“Well, Scully, that’s a bit of a silly question.”
“I like to be thorough.”
Overwhelmed with his own feelings, Mulder stepped towards the fish tank, taking her hand and leading her to the fish tank. He couldn’t put it in yet, as it needed a good clean before its submersion, but he put it on the bookshelf carefully.
“It’ll be perfect.”
“I’m glad.”
At some point in his life, Fox Mulder grew to believe that love was not for him.
Now, with Dana Scully leading him over to the couch to kiss him deeply, he felt he finally had a chance to reconsider.