Summary: Scully and Mulder are forced to go to a party held by Skinner for Scully's birthday. While Scully is not looking forward to it, Mulder has found a way to make it a lot more enjoyable.
This one reads very nicely if you read Mulder’s birthday fic first, here, and then this one! Read on AO3 here.
Scully smoothed down her dress, staring at herself in the mirror while she contemplated tearing it off her body, taking a shower and bringing a glass of wine into bed. She sighed at the temptation of doing exactly that but decided to just get this over with. She had now been with the Bureau for 5 years, coincidentally on the same day as her birthday.
Furthermore, Arlene had a baby, and some guy who worked on the same floor got married recently too. Skinner decided that with all these festive events around the Hoover building, there should be a party. Scully had pressed that he really didn’t have to, but of course, Skinner saw that as one of Scullys more humble moments, while she was actually all too serious.
A knock on the door brought her attention back to the surface. Mulder. For the past week, the rumour of a party had gone around the building. Many people were surprised that Skinner would shine the spotlight on one of the ‘Spookies’, but given that the FBI wasn’t really a place where you could throw many parties, people took it with both hands and continued to congratulate Scully on her birthday, a full week before the actual event, as if to guarantee their presence.
While that was all going on, Mulder was standing right beside her. Telling her that Skinner was showing his soft side for her once more. He told her that he found it sweet how she grew annoyed by people telling her happy birthday way too early. He hadn’t been exactly seeing this from Scully’s perspective. How she told him endlessly that her mom organized a dinner and had to cancel because of this stupid party. Then he offered her to skip the party and just visit her mom's, but she told him she’d feel bad towards Skinner.
She opened the door, a smile grew wide as she saw Mulder stand in her door with a bouquet of white roses in his hands. He was wearing a black tuxedo, way too formal for a Birthday-Anniversary-Baby Shower-Bachelor party. With the formality also came a strange informality as she saw all the effort he’d put in to look like this. His hair was neatly done, a tissue perfectly folded in his front pocket and a woodland smell surrounding him. He looked good, the collar resting against his neck, the sleeves tight around his forearms and the pants hugging his waist.
“You look handsome,” Scully confessed. He grinned and shrugged before he handed her the flowers. “Nothing compared to you, birthday girl.” Scully looked down and smelled the flowers, appreciating his choice. “Come in, I’ll just put these in a vase.” He walked in behind her and nervously glanced around the room. His eyes landed on her back.
The dress was breathtakingly beautiful, nothing he’d ever seen before. He wasn’t even sure if any woman could ever look so good. Her back was open, only a piece of the dress covering one shoulder to get to the front. He wanted nothing more than to touch the exposed skin, but he squeezed his hands instead. “You look radiant.” He stepped closer to the kitchen, she turned around while she was filling the vase with water.
“This old thing?” She scoffed while a blush crept up her cheeks. Was he supposed to say ‘Yeah, it looks amazing’ or was that confirming that he meant ‘that old thing’? He couldn’t say ‘No, it looks amazing.’ That would mean that he didn’t mean ‘that old thing.’ Mulder shifted from one foot to the other.
“You’re hair, it’s really nice like that.” From where he was facing her he could only see the back of her hair. It didn’t look much different than when she normally had it, but Mulder gathered that was because she always did her hair really well.
“You don’t have to do that, you know,” She placed the vase on the table and walked towards him and the door. Mulder didn’t really know what she meant but followed her movements with his eyes. She stopped in front of him and grabbed a handbag just sitting by his legs. Mulder quickly realised he was in the way and steered to the side, giving her space. She got up and brushed a strand of hair from her face. “I’m going, Mulder, I knew I told you I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it, but I’m going aren’t I?” She sighed.
Mulder just stared at her lips as she was explaining away. “I-I wasn’t trying to make you feel better,” He still had his eyes on her lips. Scully sighed again and straightened her back as she waited for him to follow up. “You look beautiful, Dana,” He whispered.
Her eyes scurried up his face, figuring out where to land but every time finding a better feature to look at. His hands rose and cupped her jaw, his eyes now on hers. He needed confirmation. Not just an ‘ok’ to kiss her, but that she was going to be fine, going to get through tonight and not do anything against her will. Well, if he’d say that she’d probably try and stay home, but he couldn’t let that happen.
Her eyes watered slightly as her bottom lip trembled. She nodded and Mulder lowered his face. He kissed her hungrily, not too rough but definitely not too soft. His mouth was open, and he pushed his tongue to her lips as he kissed her. She granted him access with a groan causing her to relax into the kiss.
Mulder's hands stayed firmly on her jaw, not trusting on moving them, afraid he might start pulling on her clothes or tussle up her hair which she probably wouldn’t appreciate. He pulled back and licked his lips. “We’re really gonna make this an annual thing, once every birthday?” He remarked, remembering all too well how they celebrated Mulder’s birthday last October.
She scoffed a laugh and opened her eyes, leaning away from his face. “Oh-,” She laughed and opened her handbag. Mulder looked confused before she started dabbing his lips with a tissue. She showed him the obvious pink stains on her handkerchief and grinned appreciatively. “Let’s go, Mulder, before we’ll be the last one to arrive,” She tightened his bow and patted his chest before leaning for the door.
J. Edgar Hoover Building,
The elevator gave a loud ‘Ding!’ as it opened its doors. The sudden loudness of the music stung their ears as they just came out of the quiet lift. Mulder and Scully looked around the hallway and saw many people awkwardly swaying with a plastic cup in their hands. He looked down at her and noticed how she took a deep breath before relaxing her arms to her sides.
Mulder reached out and led her out of the elevator with his hand on her lower back. Only a few steps were taken into the hall before Skinner's laugh could be heard coming closer. “Mulder! Scully! You made it.” He grinned as he both shook them by their shoulders. Scully huffed a laugh as she could smell the obvious odour of liquor surrounding him.
“Thank you for setting this party up, it looks… lively.” Scully smiled politely. Mulder bit back a grin as he could hear her obvious sarcasm and discomfort. He replaced his hand on her hip, just holding her closer to him as if to ensure that they were going to stick together and come out of this alive.
“Oh yeah! It’s in full swing, you should see the copy machine room, there’s paper everywhere.” He ended his sentence rather sombre as if he realised who had to deal with the mess later. Mulder nodded with a laugh and nudged Scully. “Thank you, sir.” Mulder rounded up before Skinner pushed two thumbs in the air as he scurried away.
“Maybe we should take a look at that copy room, Scully,” He spoke in her ear, the frequency of his voice thrilling her. “Mulder,” She said shyly. “Night still too early? How about some punch?” He smiled. She could go for some punch, probably something a bit stronger. If she was going to stay at this party long enough, it could cause violent tendencies, so a nice and calming drink was in order.
“No but seriously, Scully, if you had to pick one.” Mulder pressed. They were now leaning against a wall, both with two cups of punch in their system. The punch ended up having more alcohol in it than expected and was beginning to have an effect on them. “You can’t just tell me to pick a favourite gift, I don’t remember half of them.” She reasoned as she moved her hands dramatically.
“You have to have remembered your favourite gift, everyone has one.” He leaned his head on the wall and gave her a pouty look. “Alright, what’s yours?” She challenged, to which he smartly replied with a smirk. “Muhl-der!” She whined as she laughed. He shrugged his shoulders. “What? It was really good. I’m gonna put it on my wish list for this year.” He smiled brightly.
Scully huffed a laugh and then agreed with him to herself. It was a pretty damn good birthday for him. “But I also once got this rocket one time, and you could launch it, and it would fly up really high.” He explained suddenly very serious.
Scully was quiet while she wondered what her answer to the question would be. She reached for her golden necklace and held it between her index and thumb. Mulder watched how she played around with it before meeting her eye. He wanted to kiss her so badly at that moment.
“That was a Christmas gift and I believe you know that,” He remarked smartly instead. Scully dropped her hand, letting the cross fall naturally in its place, and took a sip from her cup. “If you really can’t come up with an answer, I might have a suggestion.” He posed.
His hand hovered up, levelling it between them with his palm up, signalling her to take it. Scully eyed him curiously before speaking up. “Where are we going?” She asked, not taking his hand. Mulder just shook his head ‘no’ and signalled for her to take his hand as see. She sighed and intertwined her hand with his. “Better not be the copy machine room,”
He led her through the crowd to the stairway. The door fell close loudly behind them, suddenly the only thing they heard was their heartbeats racing. Had it been the alcohol? The flirting? Or maybe just excitement? She didn’t care to analyse her feelings at this moment and stared at him, waiting for his next move. He smiled at her and made her walk the flight of stairs with him.
14 floors later, Mulder stopped in front of a door with a big ‘R’ on it. He had Scully’s heels in his hands and her clutching his side. “Couldn’t we have taken the elevator, Mulder?” She breathed. “It stops at the 12th floor.” He breathed shallowly, his attention on the door. “Well, that would still save me climbing 8 floors, Mulder.” She huffed, oddly feeling very sober.
Mulder just smiled at her and pushed the handle of the door open. It opened with a loud screech, causing cold air to hit them in an instant. Scully softly gasped as she clutched closer to him. “After you.” He insisted.
The sky was as dark as it could get for a city like Washington D.C. It had blue undertones, a few clouds here and there, and a million tiny stars filling the sky. “Mulder,” She mumbled shocked as she walked onto the rooftop. Her eyes were high in the sky, but her hands were clutching her arms in an attempt to stay warm.
Mulder quickly shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her as he came to stand next to her. The door stayed open at a 90-degree angle as Mulder led her closer to the side of the building. “It’s beautiful up here, I had no idea we had a roof!” She smiled at him. He couldn’t help but smile back as he saw her beautiful face in his favourite expression, happiness.
“That's not all.” He nudged her and brought her just behind a vent. There was a bundle of blankets waiting to be sat on. A small telescope and night goggles standing right next to it. A rectangular box with two cushions on it resting against the vents, hidden away if you weren’t looking for it. It was all waiting for them, waiting for her.
Scully gave Mulder a look, her mouth opened and her eyes searched everywhere, but could not find the words to express what this meant for her. She dropped her head and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Mulder placed his hand over hers and went from her hair to her cheek, jaw, and eventually her neck, grazing her jaw with his thumb.
“You did this for me?” Her voice broke. Mulder laughed and nodded frantically. “Why don’t you have a seat?” He let his hand fall and she looked back at the blankets and then back at him, nodding adorably as if she was allowed to play with forbidden toys.
Scully scooted in front of the telescope and gasped as it was set on Jupiter. Mulder buried himself in the rectangular box where he pulled several candles out, before closing it, he checked if she still had her eye in the telescope to ensure his other presents remained a secret. He smiled at how she was touching up all the nobs meant for sharpness and clarity. Mulder realised it was probably still set on his eyes without corrective lenses, and now this telescope needed a hell of a correction.
Scully caught on and laughed. “Woah, you’re eyesight is really bad.” Mulder huffed out a laugh as he lit up a match and touched it briefly against the first candle. Scully heard it and turned away from the telescope. Her face immediately turned soft again.
“I know it’s best to look with total darkness around you, but I just couldn’t resist.” He picked up the first candle and held it to the others with a sheepish grin. He passed one to Scully as she placed a couple close to one side of the blankets. She then looked around her. Candles lighting up the dark rooftop, a telescope and other instruments laying beside her, Mulder’s jacket keeping her from freezing and at last Mulder.
Mulder. Mulder was sitting with his knees bent and under his other leg. His hands intertwined with his own as his thumbs were pulling at their nails. She noticed how one foot was lightly tapping against the soft blanket floor. The candles lit his face up perfectly now, his eyes were big, shifting from the sky to her.
“Mulder,” She sighed. She kept trying to find the right words, any words for that matter. Then she decided to push closer to him. She grabbed his hands in hers and just smiled at him. “Do- do you like it?” He asked softly.
Scully scoffed and fiddled with his hands, rubbing hers over his, feeling his warmth cover her. “Like it?” She asked. “Mulder, this is my favourite present ever.” She smiled sweetly. Scully pressed down on his hands as she pulled herself up to catch his lips. For a moment she stayed floating but then Mulder pressed into the kiss, hovering over her.
She slowly fell onto the blankets as he crouched beside her. Mulder held one hand in his, and the other he brought up to her side. He felt the curve of her hips, the slight dip in them being the perfect place for his hand. He kissed her passionately, moans escaping their lips. Soft puffs of air and muffled confirmations.
Mulder held one kiss longer than the rest and slowly let go of her lips. They parted very slowly, Scully still laying on her back and Mulder laying over her, by her side. They opened their eyes and gazed at one another. The look of pure love, lust and bliss did not go unnoticed. He wanted her to wear that look every day, and he wanted to be the one that put it there. And so help him he would try to make that happen.
“Don’t try that crap on me, Scully, we haven’t even tested our night vision goggles yet.” He groaned while Scully cracked a wide smile. They pushed themselves up and Mulder handed her one pair. She pushed it over her head, Mulder laughing as the back of her hair poked up from behind. He put his on and pulled Scully up further, now sitting next to each other.
"Look at those stars!" Scully gasped. "So gorgeous," She said to herself, but loud enough for Mulder to pick up. He turned his head towards her, probably looking ridiculous with these goggles on, he took her hand in his and squeezed it. "So, so, gorgeous." He agreed.
"Happy birthday, Scully."
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