A/N: Hello hello hello, welcome to the fluffy annals of my mind. I have taken a writing break for approximately four years (and now I look at my last published work here, and I see it has indeed been four years) and in that time all that's happened is the fluff bunnies have multiplied. I'm not sure why I am only capable of writing fluff, all's I know is, I do it a whole lot. So now you are subject to it. Sorry.
I don't own anything here except the idea which was originally about a choir girl. Except that was a fail and I wanted to write fanfic. Maybe one day my fluffies will take over and I will own the entire Fox network! But until then… *sigh* a girl can dream, right?
The pencil slid into the middle hole of the three ring punch staff paper. Unfocussed eyes followed its path all the way through until it dropped out the other side. A sigh accompanied the plink as the graphite marked the floor.
He bent over to pick it up, threading it through the hole again. His eyes drifted upwards to take a surreptitious glance at her. Plink.
She was laughing. She was always laughing. She tried her best to cover her mirth from the teacher. The other girls slowly descended into the uncertain tranquility that follows such contagious laughter, but with one snicker from her, the laughter started again. Plink.
"How did you meet?"
Why did women always ask this question?
"Funny story… we grew up in the same town. Went to elementary school together… she moved and we lost touch but met again recently at a bar off Main."
"Elementary school? Really…"
"Yep." He swills his wine. She chuckles hollowly, having clearly asked out of politeness. He obviously didn't meet her in med school. He looks into his wineglass but can still sense her intellectual-snob-sneer.
"Well that was certainly a while ago." Silence. "Well, it looks like Billy's gotten into the cookies again… Billy!" The woman excuses herself and trots off crisply, her heels rapping sharply against the floor. He breathes a sigh of relief and takes a deep sip of wine, perhaps more than is socially acceptable. He doesn't care. He is bored and out of place, and he just wants to leave.
Why was her laughter so intimidating?
It wasn't an imposing chortle. Not an embarrassing snort. It was light and infectious.
Maybe it wasn't the laughter itself, but the tight group of girls leaning around her desk, backs to the rest of the room. The act of exclusion.
"He was so shy!" he hears her exclaim. She's standing by the tree; she has punch in one hand, and the other one is out at arm's length, allowing her friend (acquaintance? stranger?) to examine two months of his salary. Her look is proud, the other woman's jealous. And rightly so. That ring was custom made.
The woman says something he can't hear. She pulls her hand back with a smirk and responds, murmuring. Both women laugh loudly, then immediately temper their voices to the post-lecture cocktail party ambience. The other woman's laugh has tapered off, but he can hear hers still, light and infectious.
The class was out for recess. She was there, bright red hair in pigtails discernible amongst two lines of classmates holding hands. He sat watching, silent, the excluded one. He looked up at the kids and back down at his book on UFOs, and wondered if there is life up there, and what they'd think of him. Whether they'd want to study him, whether they'd bother. The groups started calling back and forth… Red Rover, Red Rover, and who do you think they called over…
"Dana. Dana." She can't hear, or else she's doing it again… pointedly continuing her conversation in silent irritation that he's interrupted her. He waits for a minute, antsy, liking these medical associates of hers less and less. Impatiently, he taps her gently on the shoulder during a lull in conversation.
"Come on Scully, it's time to go."
"Is it?" she feigns surprise. "Sorry Julie, you know how they are." She smirks. Julie knows how they are indeed.
"Oh! Stupid me. Mulder, this is Julie, we were in a play together once, eons ago. Julie, this is Fox Mulder… my fiancé."
He beams with pride as he sets her punch on the table and helps her slip into her long winter coat. Julie is pleased to meet him and she'd better get an invitation to the wedding, girl, because she knows where Dana lives. A hug, a congrats, and they're on their way out. Scully just has to congratulate the keynote speaker, say her goodbyes, and they'll be in the car, heading home through the snow, anticipating the warmth of their small apartment and the bed they share.
"Dana… Dana…" the children all chanted, egging her on, preparing to catch her tiny body with their linked arms. He looked up from the page again and watched as they all joined together. She made it safely across. All too soon, recess was over and it was time for class to resume. Dana headed back to her seat, grinning wildly, freckles dancing on her face, her laugh no longer so intimidating now. She took a sheet of paper out of her bag and sat down. The teacher told them to take notes and draw each new 3D geometric shapes exactly as she did, remembering to label them. Dana searched through her bag hurriedly as the teacher began to write. He tapped her on the shoulder, his shoulders hunched forward and his eyes cast low. She turned around and took the pencil, a grateful smile slowly parting her lips.
"Thanks… I'm Dana."
"Fox."
"Thanks, Fox."
She faced the board again and labeled a square based pyramid. A smile lit his face and he flushed.
He's driving with one hand, the other joined with hers between the front seats. The snowflakes are falling softly in gentle contrast to the harsh noise of the wiper across the front windshield.
"I know you don't like those people, or sitting through the lecture. And I know you'd rather not have to make small talk with them. But I'm glad you came. Thanks, Mulder."
She turns her face to look out the window at the falling snow. After all these years, that smile returns and he still flushes.