palette in the moonlight | x-files teen au

xiii. rooftop psychology at midnight

"Wait, Scully, we shouldn't." Mulder stops her at his bedroom door.

"Do your parents mind?" she asks.

"Well, no. They, uh, don't really care what I do," he replies, pulling on a loose thread on his jeans. "But your parents, they --"

"-- think I'm at Monica's house, and I can call them to say that I'm sleeping over if this lasts later than 10 PM," she interrupts, and continues once he opens his mouth to add another point to the list of cons, "And yes, Monica knows to tell my parents that I'm at her house if they do call."

"Okay, but have you thought about..." he starts, but he doesn't think of anything. 

"Come on, Mulder, let's go." she turns around and opens his room door once again.

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He closes the house door behind him.

"Where do we go?" he asks, putting his hands in his coat pockets.

Scully furrows her eyebrows, trying to think of something. Not one specific place comes to mind.

"We could..." she starts, uncertain of how the sentence will end.

"We could walk around until we figure something out."

And Mulder feels like that was the most mellifluous sentence he's heard all his life.

"Sure."

So they start walking. Just walking

Just walking down Mulder's street, right next to each other, at night.

It's a little chilly, but it's a good chilly.

As they brush up past Mulder's neighbour's apple tree, Scully decides to try and strike up conversation.

"You like any music? In particular, I mean."

"Hmm..." he tries to remember. "No, nothing comes to mind. You?"

"The Runaways are my favorite. David Bowie's pretty cool, too."

"Hey, yeah. I like David Bowie."

And another point ties on to David Bowie, another point ties on to that point, and the cycle continues.

And they have a conversation. An uninterrupted conversation, because they have nowhere to go, and they can just keep walking. They enter town.

Two goalless people just walking at night.

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"Wait, I'm gonna make a quick stop here," Scully spots a small convenience store.

"You coming in?"

"No, you go ahead," he replies, leaning against the streetlight outside.

"I'll only be a minute," she says as she enters the crammed store.

She can tell something's rotten right away. The meat fridge appears to be broken.