la vie en rose

life in pink °｡⋆⸜

An earsplitting roar of thunder rumbled through the darkening twilight sky, startling Fox Mulder awake from his slumber. He immediately sat up in his bed, slapping one of his hands against his chest to feel the rapid thudding of his heart. He felt his chest rise and fall quickly, his breathing almost matching the drumming against his rib cage.

Mulder had come face to face with supernatural and extraterrestrial phenomena yet, it was a clamor of thunder that scared him straight this time. It was sort of pathetic if you think about it.

A bright bolt of lightning flashed across the bedroom window. The blinds were up, giving Mulder a perfect view of the electrical discharge. Another night of lousy weather to match the lousy feeling in his body–the feeling being a terrible case of the flu that he had picked up somewhere along the line on a recent X-files case. Scully had loosely joked that he probably caught a bug from an extraterrestrial entity. Mulder had laughed along, though a part of him had suspected she may have been genuinely concerned about the possibility. It wouldn't be the first time an investigation affected their physical state.  She worried too much, or maybe he didn't worry enough.

Slowly, he laid back down, trying his best to steady his breathing, though with stuffy nostrils, this proved to be a tedious task. After a moment, he closed his eyes, desperately hoping that somehow he could sink back into his sleep. Unrealistic, since it had taken him an hour and a half to fall asleep before.

He was still willing to try, but that deteriorated immediately when the starting sound of twinkling patterned piano notes drifted into the bedroom. He sat up once again, and this time when he did, his head spun with dizziness.

He gave himself a second to recuperate, then he pushed the fleece blanket he was wrapped in off of his body, and clumsily pushed himself off of the bed. In doing this, he realized he lacked warmth and balance. The cold chill that ran through his body while he lay bedridden had gotten worse since standing up. He groaned while staggering out of the room, listening as the pretty piano notes changed into a whimsical trumpeting tune.

When Mulder finally managed to exit the master bedroom, his mostly useless nostrils managed to break through the thick walls of germy debris to take in a savory scent that wafted through from the kitchen. He followed the aroma and the melodic sounds until he found himself standing in the doorway of the cooking space; warm air settled around him, almost enough to melt the aching chill currently  living inside of his weak body. But only almost.

He leaned against the wall of the doorway, for support and for observation.

Dana Scully stood in front of the sink, her strawberry hair placed in a ponytail with a baby blue scrunchie, matching the oversized light blue shirt that obviously belonged to her partner. It looked far too big for her, practically devouring her whole. It was something like a metaphor; Mulder's shirt swallowed her in the same way that his love did and Scully would dive into both of them endlessly every single time.

Scully's hands were submerged in warm bubbly dish water as she scrubbed away at used cooking utensils. She was so focused on the task at hand that Mulder's presence wasn't noticed, which Mulder didn't mind. He delighted in doing things like this, observing her while she was doing her own thing in her own world. He liked it even better when she let him be in that world with her.

The trumpet notes continued and Mulder couldn't help but break out into a grin when Scully began slowly swaying to the sound. As horrible as he felt, he couldn't resist anymore. He pushed himself off of the wall and walked deeper into the kitchen until he was standing behind her. Still so distracted, Scully hadn't even realized he was there. She looked at peace, like she was the definition of tranquility.

The delicate piano notes trickled back onto the track and Mulder—just as delicate as the keys—wrapped his arms around Scully's waist, pressing their bodies so close together that the two of them could have molded into one at that moment.