TITLE : Sliding Home (1/1) AUTHOR: KatyBlue SPOILERS: post-ep The Unnatural/season six RATING: PG-13 DISCLAIMER: These beautiful drawn characters are not mine but I wish they were! They belong (if anyone, even a fictional character, can 'belong' to someone) to CC and 1013 Productions, and equally, to DD and GA. ARCHIVE: Anywhere, just let me know... ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This is piece two in my 'feel good' fanfic. Once again, first and foremost, I thank my 'X-files guidance counselors', who are tirelessly indulgent of me, Meredith and Laine. I owe them both big time, because I've borrowed their confidence in my writing in order to post it. A special thanks to Erly, Lena and Paulette, my first, warmest welcome into the fanfic community. And this is also to all the readers who keep coming back to my name to read more of my creations. Thank you! AUTHOR'S NOTES: Just a minor light and hopeful moment...nothing major... ************************************************************** The balls ran finally ran out. And the little boy, with the improbable name of Poor Boy, came up and asked Mulder for another ten bucks, holding out a grubby hand and giving me a charming smile. Then, with his fist clenched tightly around the fresh bill, he turned and ran like hell. We both watched him disappear into the darkness at the edges of the field with Mulder's money, little legs pumping as he made a profit at our expense. Mulder was still behind me, arms wrapped around my waist and in the middle of showing me a better way to position my hands. He laughed, his breath a soft puff against my ear. "How's that for integrity these days? You want me to pitch you a few, Scully?" he murmured against my neck. "Ummm...." The strange truth was, I kind of liked him where he was right now, though I'd never admit it. I opened my mouth to answer and was suprised to hear another inarticulate "Mmmm..." start the sentence. I quickly followed it with a more intelligible response. "That's probably enough exercise for tonight. It's a little warm under all these lights," I smiled and used my hand to fan my shirt in emphasis of my point. One of his hands left the bat and came around my waist. His fingers began to fumble somewhere in the region of my navel. "Mulder, what are you doing?" I asked, the breath stealing out of my lungs as the muscles in my abdomen tightened away from his touch. "Well, Agent Scully. I think I'm trying to unbutton your shirt." I felt his grin against my ear. "You do feel a little warm." "What?" My voice was incredulous. I tried to squirm out of his grasp but he had his arms around me from behind and his breath was tickling my neck. I couldn't stop the nervous laughter. It made me feel slightly weak in the knees as I struggled half-heartedly against him, unsure of his motives. He trapped me more fully with the hand that had been working the buttons. It surprised me. This whole night surprised me. Was this really Mulder behind me? Maybe it was a horny, shape-shifting alien. That was enough of a thought to frighten just me a little. "Seriously, Mulder," I managed. Without yet managing the straight face that should go along with this line, but very close. "Are you going somewhere with this?" "Oh, I think so," he whispered in my ear, wrapping both arms around me now. Where had all this suddenly come from? Ceasing my struggle, I let my body grow quiet. Puzzled, I twisted my head around and looked back. He had a little half-assed grin on his face before his eyelids lowered to half mast and his lips whispered against my earlobe. "You wanna come, Scully?" Hoo boy. I swallowed hard and felt his hand slide in along my stomach. He'd managed to get the two lowest buttons above my waistline undone and his fingers in against my skin. I couldn't help myself. I sucked in my breath with alarm which only brought me more fully up against him. "Are you scared, Scully?" His breath tickled where he spoke. I wanted to deny it. I wanted to act like this was nothing. But my voice was small and oh so afraid. "Yes," I said breathlessly. "I certainly am." In my hands, the bat had suddenly lost its lift as Mulder's had finally deserted it, and the top sank down to rest in the hollow near home base. "Me too." His lips whispered this into my ear. I felt them tickle along the side of my face before they touched down gently against my own. Reacting to the stimulus, I turned my head a little and the bat made a final, solid thump as it left my hands completely and hit the dirt. Feeling the soft brushing at the corner of my mouth, I closed my eyes and let him place chaste kisses along the length of my lips, turning my face more fully to his. I felt his hand resting on my stomach. I was aware of the lights of the ball field, warm against my eyelids and I could sense the vastness of the night beyond it. A lump rose up in my throat as the worship of Mulder's mouth against mine perversely inspired the urge to cry. A full, pressing weight in the back of my throat. And then, I felt the moment turn as it became not so chaste and his tongue parted my lips carefully. Inviting my participation. Warm and gently seeking... And something replaced the feeling of being connected to the vast openess of the night. Something earthy and close, humming through my body. Turning in his arms, I felt one of his hands sliding across my skin while the other pulled me in against him. I took my breath from the air he was breathing out. My tongue touched against his. And for a second, we played a little game. He pushed, I pushed...whose mouth were we going to be in? Then Mulder took the initiative and thrust his tongue into mine. I closed my lips around it gently. Amazing myself. And all the while, thinking what the hell am I doing? This is Mulder, for Christsakes. But I even reciprocated, invading his mouth with my tongue and feeling his lips wrap around it while he played with it with his own. I forgot about who and where we were. I forgot about who and where I was supposed to be. I became an active participant in the game. Our game. I let my hand slide under his shirt and onto his chest. Feeling the crisp hair tangle through my fingers over the heat of his skin, sweating slightly from our exertion. I felt the moment when Mulder grew tense enough at my exploration that his muscles defined themselves against my hand. "Scully..." he said in surprise and I could feel him smiling against my mouth. "Mulder..." I said, smiling back against his lips. His hands crept downward to my waist. Mine crept upward. We were laying out the ground rules. As far as I could tell, right now it was anything goes. Mulder was giving little tugs at my shirt, freeing it from its confinement. When his fingers slid under it and met my skin again, I gasped. "Mulder..." I couldn't suppress the smile that broke free. Our mouths were still attached and he took advantage of the moment and ran his tongue across my teeth. "You have a beautiful smile, Scully. How come I never see it?" The answer to his question slowed my hands. Mulder and I did not often have much to smile about. It was a rare thing for him to see me truly enjoying something. I wondered at this for a second. And even as I did so, I felt our moment begin to slip away with the great weight of what we had been carefully carrying for the past seven years. Sobering me. Hitting me hard with an introspective invasion. Sliding away from me down a long, steep slope and reminding me cruelly of exactly who and where I was. The lights shone more brightly than a billion stars, pulled into one spot and forcing me to see myself. Mulder could sense the very moment when I began to pull away. "No," he said aloud, drawing me back in tightly. Moving me backward into the caging. "Let it go, Scully..." He trapped my body between his and the chain-link. He pushed his length up along me and rested his face against mine. "Mulder," I muttered, not struggling yet but getting ready to. Telling myself he deserved a minute to collect himself. That I needed a minute to collect myself. "Think about what we're doing right now," I urged gently. "I am," he insisted against my lips. I placed my hands on his chest and pushed him back a fraction. Enough so we could bring one another into focus. Perspective. In his eyes lurked a quiet lassitude that I'd never seen before. An arousing side of my partner that I'd imagined but never had visited upon me. Oh, I was well aware that Mulder had never been short of that elusive quality known as charisma. And like any attractive man, there was something openly sexual about just looking at him. But to me, he was a person. A co-worker. A colleague. A friend. Unwelcome definitions that came with lines drawn. "No, you're not," I argued. I was suddenly acutely aware of what we were doing, out here in full view of anyone who happened to come across this well-lit playing field. And the why was escaping me. Why now? After all this time? I didn't realize that I'd said it aloud. "Why not?" Mulder answered testily. Tiny tendrils of anger began to uncurl inside me. Such a typically male answer. No reason. Just respond to the whim. Let it take you where it will and deal with the consequences later. That was not how I worked. No sir. I evaluated my actions, planned and weighed the consequences. In fact, I could not call to mind one time that I had ever been described as irrational, impulsive or spontaneous by anyone who'd ever known me in the thirty-odd years that I'd walked this earth. Perhaps a sad statement about my life. I wanted to be spontaneous. I'd tried and failed a number of times. It was just not who I was. I sighed in his arms. The effort of the struggle about to ensue seemed like too much right now. I felt Mulder insinuate himself more fully against me and I became uncomfortably aware of his erection, pressing against my thighs. "Mulder," I said with some shock. He was practically forcing himself on me. Moving backward, I was stopped by the fence behind me but I twisted my torso enough that I could glare into his eyes. It took my breath away, there was such an incredible look of sadness in his. They almost sparkled in the night with tears, held back and hopeless. "It's okay, Scully..." he whispered. His eyes acknowledged that I was pulling away. Rejecting him. As everyone always did. Leaving him alone. A lost soul. The fortress of Mulder. And then, he started to pull away from me. "Mulder, stop!" Reaching out, I grabbed him, yanking him back up against me. "Forget it, Scully," he said woodenly. He stood stiffly in my arms, all joy at the evening having fled. Every previous moment between us spoiled by the heaviness of this one. He wouldn't look at me. Just closed his eyes. "I'm sorry," he murmured. Sorry? God, that one word pierced my heart and took my breath away. The first weightless fun that Mulder and I had shared in a long time. Maybe ever. All the trouble that he had taken to bring me to that moment. The courage of making that type of advance. And he was apologizing. Apologizing to his cold, repressed, unyielding partner for every bit of it. "Mulder, no," I whispered. Suddenly wanting it back. Wanting to be able to enjoy it. To let myself go. To be uninhibited and free with my body. To be loosened of my inhibitions and let Mulder slide home right here and now. But that wasn't who I was. You can't be someone that you're not. But I could try. He could help. "Mulder," I whispered. I put my hands on either side of his face and pulled it down to mine. I let my lips touch on his, kissing him. He didn't respond. Just let me, standing there like the dead. I started to get angry. But it was a plea that escaped me. From the part of me that was locked inside my own lonely fortress, frightened and alone. "Mulder...." "Forget it, Scully," he said tiredly. I stared at him. I fought for that damnable inner control I so tenaciously clung to. I looked up at the night sky. And at the baseball diamond stretching across the ground behind him, the grass a lush, unnatural green under the lights. And then at Mulder, standing before me, arms hanging at his sides, eyes now open and staring dully at me, ready to take whatever I was going to dish out. And the great cosmic irony of life that plays the game right along with us filled me with despair. But then, strangely, something happened... Some part of me that was desperate and terrified of losing the wonder of this night, woke up. Everyone can change. And something deep inside of me came alive with a curious appetite. Lending me a boldness and a spontaneity that I'd never before experienced in all of my thirty-odd years. I reached out and started to unbutton the baseball shirt he was wearing. "Scully, what are you doing?" he protested irritably, shoving at my hands and growling under his breath for me to leave him alone. I didn't stop. He twisted around and I followed, starting to laugh at his feeble struggles that were designed not to hurt me, but only to fend me off. That woke him up. "You think this is funny, Scully?" "Yup," I answered, latching onto another one of the buttons and managing to pry it open despite his concentrated effort to stop me. He spun around and I trapped him up against the fence as number three popped open. My fingers went for number four. Home Run. And then it came back to me. The full watt smile stole across my face as I wrestled with Mulder and his buttons. And when I looked up at him, his was back too. "Quit it, Scully," he mumbled, only half-hearted in his efforts to stop me now. Staring at me almost shyly. I'd gotten half way down by then, exposing his chest to me and the night. And then we stopped our struggles. Breathing heavily. Done with this part of the game. I saw that the smile had finally returned all the way to his eyes. Reaching up, I touched my fingers to his lips reverently, playing my fingertips over them. Life is too short not to smile. "Hey Mulder," I said, hearing something in my voice that shocked me. It sounded almost sexy. "How would you like some ice-cream after the game?" He laughed. "The real thing this time?" I nodded, then took his hand and a step backward. I started to pull him toward me, grinning despite myself. "Are you coming with me, Mulder?" He took a tentative step forward, his own smile growing. "Oh, I hope so, Scully." ************************************************* THE END I hope you liked it. I aim to please...both myself and my readers :) I know this one was light-hearted but we could all use a little of that right now, hmm?. If you still feel like feedback,send it to katy2blue@aol.com