Something Sweet - Requested by Anonymous - October 6th, 2019
Season 7 - "What's something sweet you'd like someone to do for you?"

Looking back, she wasn't sure why she'd even asked. If she remembered correctly, it was around Valentine's Day. Part of her remembers the person they were interviewing gloating about their spouse doing this and that for them to celebrate the holiday. It was years ago, very early in their partnership, so she can't remember why she decided to ask. All she remembered how awkward she felt because she'd never really asked him such a personal, non X-Files, related question before, and how sweet and innocent his response had been.

"What's something sweet you'd like someone to do for you?"

It was like everything preceding the question was a blur up until the moment the words left her mouth, then she remembered with crystal clear accuracy. The way her face felt like it was on fire from embarrassment at her question, the way he turned to her with a look of surprised puzzlement, and especially the way he seemed to give it genuine thought, as if he was honored by her asking something like that and wanted to give her a quality answer in the hopes she might do it again.

"Show me they know me." Was his response.

There must have been something in her facial expression that made him feel like he needed to elaborate. "Like, um, I don't know. It's nice seeing that someone pays attention to you, ya know? Someone just doing something as simple as knowing my favorite song because they heard me humming it or bringing me something to drink because they thought I might want one. I-I don't know, that's stupid," he laughed, shaking his head.

"No, it's sweet."

To be honest, she thought it was weird at the time. She didn't get why something so oddly mundane would be his answer. Now, with multiple years of Mulder-knowledge under her belt, she understood and it broke her heart. Mulder just wanted to know someone cared about him. That any one of the billions of people on this planet cared to know anything about him.

She was certain that little conversation they had in the middle of nowhere all those years ago hadn't meant anything to him. But it always stuck with her. When they went to a gas station and he inevitably grabbed David's brand sunflower seeds and an iced tea, when he dramatically reenacted all seven and a half minutes of Stairway to Heaven every time it came on, even when he wore that fading purple shirt signaling he was low on clean clothes – she never said anything, but always thought to herself "I know you, Mulder."

She was pretty confident at this point in their partnership that she knew him about as well as she knew herself. Recently, as she was contemplating what to get him for his upcoming birthday, those words rang around in her head. "Show me they know me."

She was really sewing her heart onto her sleeve with this, but she just wanted to do something sweet for him.

While she waited for him to come down to the office the morning of, she felt her stomach twisting into knots. This was stupid. I should have just gotten him the ties I'd been teasing him about.

She was just about to grab the box from his desk when he barged in. "Hey, you're here early," he greeted.

No point in hiding now. "Happy Birthday, Mulder," she smiled before taking a step forward and hugging him.

"You remembered," he beamed as he wrapped his arms around her and squeezed her against him.

She rolled her eyes before stepping back and sitting at her desk. "Unlike you, I celebrate birthdays in human years," she teased.

He chuckled at her joke before his attention was captivated by the big box on his desk. "And you got me a present?" he asked, all but running to his seat.

She smiled at his enthusiasm but felt another surge of embarrassment come up as he started to unwrap it. What if he just thought it was weird?

"My favorite color too, Scully," he replied, pointing to the wrapping paper. He opened the box and didn't say anything, and she turned to her computer to give herself something to do so that it didn't seem like she was analyzing his reaction. Unfortunately, her computer was turned off, so she had to sit and wait as the god-awful AOL Dial Up sound screeched through the office. She stared at the outline of a man on the screen with feigned interest until she heard Mulder murmur something.

"Hm?" she prompted, looking back at him.

She felt relief flow through her body when she saw his face almost being ripped open by the intensity of his smile. "Scully!" he stated, rummaging through the box.

"It's silly," she laughed breathily.

"It's all my favorites," he beamed, pulling out the random assortment of objects.

Sunflower seeds, iced tea, the 'crispy' M&Ms he could only find at one gas station in the area that he'd become obsessed with, a baseball card of the player he had a jersey of from that team he said he liked at the baseball diamond that one night, a copy of "Planet of the Apes" because a year ago he said his wore out, a Suede CD because he turned their music up and always murmured 'hell yeah' when they came on the radio, and a handwritten card that would mortify her if he read it in front of her right now.

Then, at the very bottom of the box, was the item she was most shy about. One of the times he'd visited her after her abduction, he'd casually mentioned to her that he used to have a Bones action figure from Star Trek that he'd destroyed after Samantha was taken. She thinks he was trying to make some point about being happy that she was back, but eloquence had never been their strong suit.

She went to every nerdy store in the D.C. area, but she found the one Bones figure that was released around that time and she got it for him. Did he need it? No. But if the stuff in the box right now didn't prove that she listened to him, this would.

For a moment she feared she misremembered. She saw the moment his eyes locked on the doll, because his eyebrows cocked up as he picked it up. She looked up for a moment and stared at the pencils on the ceiling as he examined it. When she started to accept she must've gotten the wrong doll, she heard him murmur, "You remembered."

Her eyes shot back to him and caught his eyes, which were focused intently on hers – their brightness matching the radiance of his smile. "Of course I did."

He looked down at the collection of stuff with unabashed happiness and any nervousness she'd had dissipated. He opened his mouth a few times, but seemed to be at a loss of words. He ran his thumb lovingly over the blue felt of McCoy's shirt, and told her, "Did you know Bones is my second favorite doctor of all time?"

Her computer flashed to her home screen and she turned to type in her password – her anxiety lowering now that he was shifting the topic into something less intimate or personal as her gift had been. "Oh really? Who's your first?" she asked.

"This beautiful redheaded doctor I know. She's thoughtful and considerate, and the best partner anyone could ever ask for," he praised.

She tried to suppress the smile that broke out on her face as she turned to Mulder, who had taken a seat as was opening a bag of seeds as he continued to smile at her. "I'll keep that in mind for birthday present next year," she teased.