Disclaimer: They aren't mine, the song belongs to Susan Ashton. I just have a borrowing problem.
Spoilers: Syzygy sorta
A/N: I have had this is my "to be done" folder for months upon months. Feels go to get back into the swing and get something done.
She laid across the length of the couch, staring at a spot on the carpet and sighing inwardly. It had been a tiring day, preceded by a terrible week and she wanted to just lay there prostrate until Monday morning. She wasn't mad or sad or bummed. She was simply blah. It was an irritating feeling, so perhaps that meant she was irritated too, but she was too blah to think about such things.
She let her breath out slowly willing her muscles to relax and melt away. Becoming a puddle of goo sounded pretty inviting right now. It was getting a little too cool in the room and she stared at the thermostat, hoping that sheer force of will would turn it up. No such luck. She contemplated just dealing with it, but in the end, her curse of always being cold won out and she dragged herself up and over to the wall. She clicked the thermostat up a few degrees and looked down at her rumpled work clothes. Definitely time to change.
She moved into the bedroom with a yawn, trying to decide if she was going to go casual or head straight for the pajamas. She was standing there with her dresser drawers open when there was a knock on the door.
She loved the man, she really did, but she had just spent the last eight hours staring at him, and she didn't really want to look at him anymore, no matter how attractive he was. Grumbling, she made her way to the door and pulled it open. And there he stood in all his grey t-shirt, Levi's wearing glory. She would have been lying if she said that the fabric stretching across his chest went unnoticed, but she surely didn't have to say it out loud. She looked him up and down, suddenly wishing she had changed her clothes earlier.
He was looking her up and down too, admiring the way the slacks made her look taller, how the blouse accentuated her slight curves, and how he could see a sliver of skin where one of her buttons had come undone. Her hair was tousled from laying on the couch and he clenched his hands at his side to keep from reaching out to touch it.
"You okay, grumpy Gus?"
She nodded.
"What's bothering you? I know it's something."
"Nothing in particular. I'm just bothered."
"Go change."
"What?"
"We've got to change this mood of yours, and that is much easier to do when you're in regular clothes. Though I am enjoying your abandonment of modern buttoning techniques."
Her face took on a pink tinge and she looked down at her shirt. Top and bottom buttons were undone. She wasn't showing much skin, but apparently it was enough to amuse him.
"I'll go change."
"And make it quick."
She rolled her eyes and went into her bedroom, pulling on a pair of jeans and a sweater before joining him again. He had turned her stereo on and was listening to Tubthumping by Chumbawamba while looking through the newspaper. She smirked as she watched him in the moment before he noticed she was standing there.
"Ready to go?"
"I'm ready. You still have one more chorus before you're done, swivel hips."
"Oooh, and she emerges with some sass."
"Don't look so shocked."
He chuckled and led her out the door and out to his car.
"So where are we going?"
"No where."
"Sounds exciting."
"Oh, it will be, Scully. It will be."
She slid into the passenger seat and pulled the visor down while he started the car. It was her favorite time of spring night. Dusky with the sun just setting. Everything fell quiet, everything became lighter and it seemed like all the frustrations went away.
"Mulder… going to the gym is not really the way I wanted to spend the evening," she said as he parked the car.
"Oh come on, I need a cheerleader."
"What?"
"I have a basketball game tonight. We really suck, and I thought you could use a laugh."
"Aw, you know me so well."
He grinned and grabbed his bag from the backseat. They went into the gym where be bought a bottle of water from the vending machine before securing her a place on the bleachers.
"I'm gonna go change. Be right back."
She sighed and nodded, trying to get comfortable on the bleachers. She couldn't remember the last time she had sat on any, and quite frankly all she could think about was that kid who was crushed between them all those years ago in that high school gymnasium. It was quite the creepy feeling to know that she was sitting on something that had been used as a murder weapon. Of course they weren't the same ones, but she could still hear them clanging in her head as they boy's body was finally released.
"So Mulder is finally feeling confident enough to bring someone to watch him play?"
Scully's head snapped up at the voice and she found a blond woman standing before her.
"I suppose."
"I'm Grace. My husband is on the same team with Mulder. He's never brought anyone to a game before."
"Well apparently I am in need of a laugh."
"They are quite the bumbling group."
"Dana Scully. I'm Mulder's partner."
"I figured. He talks about you."
"Oh great."
Grace smiled.
"It's all good stuff. Like he doesn't know how you put up with him and you must be a saint. Stuff like that."
"Well, he'd better think that. How often do they play?"
"They practice on Mondays and Thursdays, have games about once a week. I'm sure they would do it more often, but most of the wives don't want to be basketball widows."
Scully nodded as Mulder came back into the gym, decked out in shorts and a jersey. He tossed his bag down next to her and took a drink of his water.
"Watch my stuff, 'kay?"
"Mulder, what could you possibly have in here that would be worth stealing?"
"The family fortune of course."
"Sweaty socks and a half eaten Power Bar?"
"Bingo."
She rolled her eyes as he jogged out onto the court and started to pass the ball back and forth with the other guys. It was weird to see him interacting with guys on a normal level, not to mention guys that didn't spend their free time hacking into government websites.
"So Mulder told me that the team sucks. Was he being modest or…"
"Nah, they suck."
Scully chuckled and watched as the two teams started to play. They would have been good if they would have had better communication skills. It would have been a good idea to upgrade from grunts to actual words, but with Mulder on the team, that was probably too much to ask.
She watched him sink a three pointer, then made a big show of rolling her eyes when he looked over at her. He just smiled back and went back to the game.
"Great, now he has someone to show off for," Grace said with a chuckle. "He's going to be worse than normal."
"Yeah, he kind of has an ego problem. I've been trying to break him of it for years."
"That would be like breaking him of being a man."
"Agreed."
They watched the almost slapstick game until it went to halftime. Mulder came and plopped down next to Scully, polishing off the rest of his water.
"You're sweaty," she muttered, wrinkling her nose and moving away.
"At least I still smell good."
"I didn't say that."
"You're hilarious."
"And you suck at basketball."
"I don't see you out there."
"I don't want to get taken out by two hundred pounds of testosterone."
"Huh. I thought you'd be into that."
She smacked his arm and he stood up from the bench, shaking his near empty water bottle at her.
"Wanna get me a refill?"
"Earn it."
"You're a vicious woman, Dana Katherine Scully."
"And you're a pathetic man, Fox William Mulder."
He smirked and headed back out to the court while Grace snickered.
"What?"
"It's nice to see him getting put in his place."
"He won't stay there long."
"That man is all talk."
"That is true. Like the time he said he would never forget my birthday again. Lies."
The game ended a while later, with Mulder's team losing miserably. They didn't seem to mind much though, coming off the court with jokes and laughter. Mulder grabbed his bag and ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand up.
"I'm gonna go shower. I'll meet you out front."
She nodded and watched him go into the locker room, then headed the other direction to the lobby. Walking slowly down the hall, she looked in the trophy cases. There were pictures dating back to the sixties of kids teams sponsored by the gym. The teams had been pretty successful for years and she was to the late eighty's before she stopped. For three years in a row, Mulder had coached a team of 10 year old boys. She smiled to herself, wondering why he had stopped. It didn't take much investigating. The year she had been taken was the year that a new coach stepped in.
"Hey, ready to go?" Mulder asked, coming up behind her.
"Yeah, I'm ready. You never told me you coached."
"It was years ago."
"Why did you stop?"
"I didn't have time anymore. If it had just been the practices and games, I could have, but some of those parents, moms especially wanted me to be mentors to their kids. I couldn't have them rely on me like that. There's a different coach now and he's got more time for them."
She nodded as they made their way back to the car.
"So, what do you say to ice-cream?"
"If it's in a cone, I say absolutely yes."
The long grass licked at her skin as she settled back against it. Their ice-cream cones were long gone and the night had come in swiftly, bringing with it a slightly chilled wind. He had taken her a few miles out of town to a place where they could look down and see the lights of the city. They were laying side by side in the grass, breathing slowly, almost melting into the earth beneath them.
"Hey Scully?"
"Hmm?"
"What's been bugging you?"
"Nothing."
"Scully."
She was quiet, but he didn't prompt her again.
"I'm kind of… I don't know. I would tell you if I could."
He rolled over onto his elbow so he could see her better.
"When you figure it out, you'll let me know, right?"
"Yeah."
He smiled and settled back against the ground again, whistling softly into the night. Her laughter met his tune and they floated away together, lazily on the wind.
"Hey Mulder?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks for this. I feel better."
"Anytime. Just as long as you don't tell anyone how bad I suck at basketball."
This time her laughter was loud and sincere, swirling around them and binding them together all the more.
This is how it seems to me
Life is only therapy
Real expensive
And no guarantee
So I lie here on the couch
With my heart hanging out
Frozen solid with fear
Like a rock in the ground
Oh but you move me
You give me courage I didn't
Know I had
You move me on
I can't go with you
And stay where I am
So you move me on
Here is how love was to me
I could look and not see
Going through the emotions
Not knowin' what they mean
And it scared me so much
That I just wouldn't budge
I might have stayed there forever
If not for your touch
Oh but you move me
Out of myself and into the fire
You move me
Now I'm burning with love
And with hope and desire
How you move me
You go whistling in the dark
Making light of it
Making light of it
And I follow with my heart
Laughing all the way
Oh 'cause you move me
You get me dancing and you
make me sing
You move me
Now I'm taking delight
In every little thing
How you move me