Disclaimer- they're not mine and you know it.
Note- I wasn't going to post this, as it's a quick thing I did, but due to popular demand (Hi guys!) I did (obviously!)
I thought Mulder was a bit on the mean side of annoying, but seeing as my peoples here understood this I hope you guys will too.
Hi Faye! and ! next.
Please review, I'm feeling a bit down and I'd really appreciate some feedback.
The car slowed to a halt outside a large red-brick bulding.
It was not the type of place you would expect the FBI to be surveilling, it look almost safe and homey.
This was emphasized by the neatly cut grass and small picket fence.
You particularly wouldn't expect it to be watched if you knew the two agents inside the van "hunted aliens".
Dana Scully sighed and looked at her partner, Mulder.
"Mulder-" she started but he cut her off.
"Why are we here?" he finished for her.
"Well, forgive me, but this isn't an X-File. This isn't even our case. Not really. We simply wait until the suspect leaves and fingerprint the remaining employees inside the building. This job could be handled by any agents."
Mulder interrupted her again.
"Well, that's exactly what Kersh wants us to be now. Any old agents."
"Yes, but why this boring assignment out of the other boring assignments we got offered? Do you have some sort of feeling?"
"Now, why do you always ask that?" he said, a pained expression on his face.
Scully was surprised that after all these years she couldn't work out if he was acting or not.
"I just want to try out the "regular" agent thing, that's all." he told her.
"You'd pick this over the X-Files?" she asked, half amused.
Of course she knew what the answer was so he didn't dignify it with a response.
Instead he started tapping his fingers loudly against the window.
He knew how much it annoyed her. He thought she looked cute when she was angry.
She put up with it for his estimated twenty seconds. Then she merely raised an eyebrow.
Mulder reduced the volume, but only slightly.
He predicted another five seconds.
He was right. That was the exact time it took her to playfully shove him.
He tried extremely hard to keep a straight face, but his acting skills weren't that great.
He felt better about collapsing back into the seat in laughter because Scully did it first.
As experienced as he was at predicting when she would react, the action she perfomed would usually surprise him.
They finally calmed down. (They realised that they'd better or the suspect would just walk out unseen, and just think the two of them were just some random lunatics)
They waited for an hour.
In absolute silence.
To the unprofessionals this would seem like they didn't get along, but for them it meant that they were so close that "they get along" didn't quite cover it.
They could sit in the comfortable quiet and know that if anything came up they needed to talk to they could always have another midnight talk on the phone, often lasting until dawn.
Their phone companies had noticed how often they stayed in contact, and even offered them discounts whenever they dialled the other's number.
When their guy left the building they both knew it immediately and became instantly alert.
He climbed into a shiny, black sedan.
Scully noticed the registration plate as he started driving away.
"We're going in for fingerprints to compare?" she asked him.
He didn't answer.
He got out of the car and walked around to the passenger side to hold the door open for her.
"Thanks." she said, stepping out, slightly surprised.
Out of the blue, he challenged her.
"I bet you couldn't go half an hour in there without snapping at me."
"You bet what exactly?" she asked, her blue eyes bright, accepting the challenge.
He hesitated. "Dinner tonight." He finally decided. "I lose, I cook, I win then you cook."
Scully wasn't even offended that he had assumed (correctly) that she never had plans.
If she had plans she probably would have told him. They both knew that.
"It's a deal." she agreed.
She was reasonably confident she could put up with him, and it would be nice not to have a microwave dinner for one that evening.
They entered the building through the main doors.
Only two workers refused to be fingerprinted. Scully resolved to get them anyway.
She ran her fingers through her hair, leaving it soft and feminine, and introduced herself to the guy who wouldn't co-operate.
She "accidentaly" dropped a small notebook.
As she had hoped, the guy automaticlly bent down to pick it up for her.
Leaving a perfect print on the shiny cover.
She excused herself and walked over to where Mulder was watching out of sight. She wore a huge smile on her face.
He wasn't dettered.
He spotted the female who was objecting to having prints taken.
He tried to fix his hair, and picked up a notebook.
Scully watched in disbelief as she bagged and tagged her own evidence.
Mulder used the same trick, got the same result.
Scully wondered if he was purposely trying to make her jealous because of their bet.
But whether he was or not made little difference, that was the effect.
She wondered when he'd start being irritating. She didn't have long to wait.
They went to greet the manager of the business, who they had only spoken to on the phone briefly to explain procedure.
"I'll introduce us." he muttered as they stepped up beside him.
Ten seconds passed slowly, and Mulder didn't say anything.
Scully's face flushed. He'd tricked her. She should have managed to be prepared for that.
She felt foolish, but she said "Agents' Scully and Mulder, FBI."
"Actually, it's Mulder." he whispered audiably, pronouncing the "u" slightly different to make her look unprofessional.
She resisted the temptation to glare at him, she wanted to show her annoyance, but she wanted him to cook for her even more.
Meeting the departmental managers was even worse.
Scully considered using alliterative phrases after their names worse.
"Agents' Mulder and Scully, here to help."
"Agents' Mulder and Scully, service with a smile."
She forced herself to smile and tried to make it look like it wasn't bothering her, but she knew that he knew it did.
She just knew.
The woman in charge of Administration came over.
"I take it he's not always like this?" she asked drily.
Scully sighed. "He's usually more...bearable."
The woman shrugged. "Men are immature."
Scully didn't want to say that she had encouraged his immaturity for the sake of a good meal.
"Either of you married?" the woman asked casually.
Scully normally avoided personal questions, but she shook her head.
"Then, if you ask me, which some people do, he wants you. That's just the way he shows it. People think that guys grow out of that in the 8th grade, but most of them never do. My husband included."
Scully thought about this. Right now she knew the reason why he was trying to antagonise her.
But the rest of the time...the woman's theory was a good one.
"Kiss him tonight." she suggested, just as casually. "Surprise him. See how he reacts."
Scully had been listening, but watching Mulder work from a distance.
She turned around to ask the woman who she was, and exactly why she thought that Scully would want to kiss Mulder.
But the woman had disappeared.
"Well done in there, Scully." Mulder commented on the way back to the car. "I thought you'd blow up at me at least once."
"What are you cooking?" she asked immediately.
He shrugged. "Something special, I'm expecting a hot date."
She couldn't get what the admin. manager had said out of her head.
Mulder leaned towards her to ask if she wanted pizza.
Scully leaned forwards too.
She kissed him.
When they broke apart he was smiling.
"What was that?" he asked, happily.
"I was irritating you." she replied.
He laughed. "Scully, that could never exactly piss me off.
He leant in again, unsure.
But Scully cancelled all his doubts by kissing him again.
She knew one thing.
Dinner wasn't all she'd be getting that night.
At the business in the red bricked bulding there had been no proper Administration department for 34 years.