Disclaimer: They are not mine.
Spoilers: Mostly just Rain King.
A/N: I love rain almost more than life itself. I also have never been cloud-gazing, at least not officially.
Scully sighed to herself and kicked the dirt at her feet. It was taking a lot longer for Mulder to secure them a flight out of this town than she thought it would. She crossed her arms and leaned against the car, looking up at the clear sky. With the downpour they had had last night, she was surprised that the ground was dry. The earth had soaked the rain up like a sponge and had turned this into a nice balmy day. Frowning, she flicked a fly off the leg of her jeans. She wished she could be in shorts and a tank-top, but jeans and a t-shirt was as close as she could get.
Mulder sauntered over and stood next to her, shading his eyes with his hand. It seemed that he had misplaced his sunglasses again. She'd have to get him a new pair once they were out of this place.
"It'll be about an hour before we can get out of here. The pilot took the Gundersons to the real airport and then he had some business to attend to in town. He said he'd hurry back though."
"We should have left yesterday."
"Aw, come on Scully. You enjoyed that reunion last night."
"The punch was alright."
"But that guy asked you to dance."
Her face colored slightly and she looked away.
"But I refused, so apparently I did not enjoy the offer."
"Well anyway," he muttered. "Hey, what about that pizza we had last night? You said you'd never had better."
"People say a lot of things when they haven't eaten all day."
"Why are you so cranky?"
"I didn't sleep well."
"You slept like a log. I had to share a bed with you, remember? You barely moved all night."
"That's because I couldn't. You were right next to me, I had nowhere to go!"
"Sorry. You were warm and it was cold in that room."
"Yeah, I guess that's true."
"Any particular reason you're not in the best of moods today?"
She shrugged.
"I don't know. I'm sorry."
He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Come on, you can tell your old friend Mulder."
She couldn't stop the smile that crept across her face.
"I guess... remember when Shelia was talking about all the weather related tragedies in her life? And she was saying how there are shapes in clouds? I realized that I have never looked up at the clouds before."
"What?"
"Never in my whole life have I ever looked up at the clouds to see what they looked like. Not once. Not even when I was a little kid."
"Why not?"
"I don't know. But now I feel like I missed out on something."
He watched her for a moment, then took her hand and pulled her up the tiny hill that was next to the "airport."
"Mulder-"
He sat down on the ground and patted the spot next to him.
"Come on, Scully. Pretend you're five with me."
"That won't take much pretending for you."
"Scully..."
She sat down next to him, then followed his lead when he laid down, one arm behind his head.
"Mulder if this ground is wet..."
"It's not."
She sighed and stared up at the sky.
"How do you do this, Mulder?"
"There's no formula, Scully. You just look at the clouds. Sometimes they look like things, and sometimes they don't."
"This is like fishing. You just sit around hoping something will happen."
"Which is why it's relaxing. There's nothing wrong or right about it."
They were quiet for a while, and Scully's eyelids began to get heavy.
"Scully, look, it's a dog!"
"Where?"
"Right there," he said, pointing at a cloud to their right. "Can you see it?"
She squinted her eyes and sat up a little.
"Help me out here."
"There's the nose, and there's the ear, and that little patch of sky is his eye. See it?"
"Yeah, kind of."
"See, it's not so hard."
"I think I see a turtle."
"Where?"
She had to reach over him to point at it.
"There. It doesn't have enough legs, but it looks like a shell, right?"
"Yeah, it kind of does."
She let her hand come to rest on his chest and they sighed together.
"Ooh, that one looks like a fried egg!" she announced, pointing at a cloud directly above them.
"What?"
"Look how it's darker in the middle. That's the yolk."
"I'm not seeing it."
"Right there, Mulder."
"Nope."
"Right above us. It's right there, I swear to you."
"Sorry."
She sighed.
"Oh well."
"Do you see a cactus over there? It's sideways."
"Oh yeah. Do you see a banana right next to it?"
"Uh-huh."
They were quiet again, her hand still on his chest.
"Mulder?"
"Hmm?"
"Last night, when Holman said "You should try it sometime," What was he talking about?"
Mulder chuckled a little.
"He's under the impression that you and I are in love."
"Ah."
"He claims that I gaze at you."
"Well, you do."
"I do not!"
"Mulder, you do it all the time."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
"Learn something new every day. Speaking of which, what did you say to Sheila in the bathroom?"
"I fed her some dopey line like sometimes the person you really love is right in front of you. I think I was channeling the Country Top 40."
"Do you really believe that the person you love can be right in front of you, and you'd never know it?"
"I don't know."
"Then do you believe in love at first sight?"
"I believe that the first time you see someone you can feel a connection to them. I felt one with you. Or you can feel an attraction right off, but not love. Love is too complicated."
"Do you believe that everyone has a soul mate?"
"Yeah, but I don't think that a soul mate is necessarily a romantic partner."
"You don't?"
"No. I think soul mate has to do with souls, not necessarily your heart. And sometimes the person you're in love with is not the person that fills your soul. And I don't mean that they can't be, and probably the majority of the time they are, but I think it just depends on who you're connected with on a soul level. Does that sound weird?"
"No, it sounds like your sister."
She chuckled.
"Maybe."
"You know, out of all the beliefs we have ever discussed, we have never discussed love."
"We haven't?" she asked, turning to look at him, her fingers absentmindedly playing with his shirt.
"Nope."
"Hmm. So what do you believe about love, Mulder? Can it happen at first sight?"
"I think it's like you said. A connection can be formed soon after meeting someone. I think it's easier to love someone or fall in love with them once that connection has been formed."
"Like Sheila and Holman. They knew each other for such a long time. Maybe they didn't have that connection at first, but they spent years nurturing it."
"Like us."
"How?"
"We had the connection from the start, and we've spent years cultivating it. We're pretty bound together, wouldn't you say?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Hey, why do you think that Holman's emotions manifested themselves in the kind of weather they did? For the sake of argument."
"Well, I'm not entirely sure. I would imagine that the drought was because he felt dead inside, and the sudden downpour of rain was like a downpour of disappointment. Maybe the emotions didn't dictate the kind of weather. Maybe it was just the intensity of his emotions that caused intense weather."
"Hmm. Am I the only one that thinks he needs to see a therapist?"
"No, you're not."
"Am I the only one that thought Sheila was kind of an airhead?"
"No. All she needed was a pack of BubbleYum and she and Cindy could have tied for airhead of the year."
She giggled.
"Hey, I think that's our plane," he said as he pointed to a small plane, the disappointment showing in his voice.
"I guess."
He helped her from the ground and she hugged him quickly.
"Mulder, what do you think the weather will be like in DC?"
"I think it will be the perfect day, Scully."