Single Word Prompts (X-Files)

Lock

It was excruciatingly hot in the basement. There were only two windows, and you couldn't even open them. There was no air, it was the stuffiest place in the whole building, and Mulder and Scully were stuck there. On the one day that they had nothing to do, the sun decided to beat down at its hottest. Mulder was looking through the X-Files for the hundredth time, and Scully was amusing herself by swiveling in his black desk chair, fanning her neck with a piece of paper.

"Mulder........"

She groaned at him, stopping the chair from turning by putting her feet down on the floor.

"Why can't we just go outside?"

He looked up from the files, pushing his glasses up further onto the bridge of his nose.

"Because, we need to work."

This made Scully groan again. She slammed her head down rather violently onto his desk. She was about to tell him that they both knew that there wasn't much work to be done when she noticed something that wasn't there before.

"Mulder?"
"Hmm?"
"Why is there a padlock on your drawer?"

Mulder started at this, raising his eyebrows. He had hoped that Scully wouldn't notice that.

"H-huh? Oh that. That's... That's n-nothing."
"So then, it wouldn't matter if I opened it?"

Scully held up a key, the ring dangling from the tip of her index finger. She smirked, knowing what was probably in that drawer. Mulder's mouth dropped open, but he was also smirking. Suddenly he wasn't worried about Scully's reaction to what was in the drawer, but rather intrigued to know what it would be.

"I see you've been snooping."
"Maybe."
"How long have you had that?"
"Since this morning. I found it, and decided to hold onto it. Good thing I did."
"So are you going to open it?"

Scully made an innocent-looking face, pouting.

"Open what?"

Mulder smiled, and Scully smiled back. She wiped the sweat from her brow, and started leaning towards the drawer. Mulder moved behind her so he could look over her shoulder. She put the key into the lock and turned it. What she saw made her right eyebrow shoot up, and her eyes go wide.

"Mulder?"
"Yes?"
"What is this?"

She pulled out one of the pictures from the drawer and held it up.

"Why do you have so many pictures?"
"Doesn't everyone like to conserve their memories on some good old pieces of paper?"
"Yeah... But not everyone likes to conserve hundreds of pictures... Of me."

Scully turned around in the chair and stared quizzically at her partner's face, trying to look angry; but in truth, she found this rather endearing.

"So, why?"
"Because."
"Because?"
"Because, you're beautiful."

Scully blushed at this, looking back down at the picture of her standing on the beach in a blue bikini.

"You're so beautiful that I need to be able to look at you whenever I want. It may sound strange, but to me, it's the most natural thing in the world."

All this time, Mulder had been leaning lower and lower into Scully, and now they were so close that they could feel the heat coming off of each other's bodies, they could smell each other's sweat.

"It's not strange at all."
"Then why are you looking at me like that?"
"I don't know. Where did you even get these?"
"Maybe better I don't answer that."

Scully couldn't take it anymore, their bodies were almost touching, the heat was getting unbearable and now it wasn't just coming from the sun. So, she softened her glare and let out a giggle, grabbing Mulder by his tie and pulling him closer until their lips were mere millimeters apart.

"So, you think I'm beautiful?"
"Exceedingly."
"You're sweet."

Mulder was taken aback by her sudden change of heart, and couldn't help the reddening in his cheeks. Scully was enjoying toying with him, but she was finished. She pushed him away, making him stagger onto the wall.

"But?"
"But,"

She tried hard to imitate Mulder, scowling and shaking her finger at him, as if scolding a child.

"we need to work."