TITLE: PAINT BY NUMBER AUTHOR: SHERYL MARTIN E-MAIL: fdragon@zoominternet.net RATING: NC-17 CATEGORY: MSR DISCLAIMER: All Characters copyright of Ten Thirteen Productions and Chris Carter. No infringement intended on any part... go ahead, take me to court... I'm using the insanity defence... heh, heh, heh... Summary: smut, smut, smut... oh, you wanted plot? Spoilers: slight spoiler from FTF... but nothing new... Rating: smut, smut, smut... NC-17, smut story... oh, did I mention it's a fluff piece? with smut? okay.... you were warned... XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Rapping lightly on Scully's apartment Mulder waited, carefully balancing the stack of folders in both hands. A pause, then he knocked again; louder this time. "Yah, yah... wait a minute..." The garbled but recognisable voice murmured from behind the door. He heard the locks being undone, then the door opened a fraction. "Mulder..." The sentence ended in a question mark. "What are you doing here?" He looked at her with a frown. "We were going to go over the retrieved cases and fill in the blanks... you remember, we set up a time..." Still peeking at him through the slit, she scowled. "NEXT Saturday, Mulder... we set it up for next weekend..." "Oh..." Shuffling his feet from side to side, Mulder looked down the hallway. "Well, can I at least come in for a second..." A muffled laugh as the door shut then swung open wide. "Sure... but you'll be sorry..." Mulder stepped into what could best be called an arctic desolation landscape reconstruction; white sheets covering every inch of the floor and furniture and even up one side of the wall over the fireplace. Standing back and wearing an oversized mens shirt and shorts, stood his partner; her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail as she smiled cheerfully at him. "I'm painting today." "Oh..." Stepping precariously over one large can of paint, he made his way to what he assumed was the couch. "I thought you hired someone to do this..." "I did..." Brushing a wayward lock of hair out of her face, Scully sighed. "But then they rescheduled me for two months from now - so I figured that I might as well do it myself and save the time and annoyance..." Settling in on the couch as the white sheets billowed around him, Mulder looked around him. "And you're painting this room..." "Eggshell white." She gestured at the tray and roller a few feet from his shoes. "And if you want your leather jacket to stay black; your jeans to stay blue and your grey tshirt to stay their original colours, you won't move an inch..." "White?" He looked around him again in disbelief. "Scully, it was white to start with... why paint it the same colour again?" Crossing her arms, she stood defiantly in front of him. "Mulder... it's my apartment. I can paint it what I want. And I wanted off- white again." "Yah, but..." He waved a hand at the walls. "Maybe a pastel blue, or a soothing pink..." "Go home, Mulder..." Turning her back on him, the petite redhead picked up a roller. "I'm just finishing the last coat and then plan to collapse. So if you're not going to help, then go home and I'll see you at work on Monday..." "Scully..." Ignoring him, she focused her attention on the far wall. "I'll help out if you want me to... really..." "That would be faster..." She admitted. "But I'm not paying for your dry cleaning bills, even if this paint is water soluble..." "S'allright.." The chuckle froze her in her tracks. "I've got a solution." As she turned to face him again, Scully found herself at a complete loss of words; not for the first nor the last time around Fox Mulder. He had stripped off his jacket and tucked it under the sheets on the couch. Along with his socks, shoes and his jeans. Leaving him standing there in a pair of black boxer shorts and a grey tshirt. In only a pair of black boxer shorts and a grey tshirt. Her mouth was suddenly dry and she had forgotten how to swallow. Sensing the reaction he had caused, the tall man walked over to the tray of paint and picked up a fresh roller; dabbing it in the wet liquid. "Hey, never let it be said that I let my partner do all the hard work by herself..." Choking back a snort, she gestured at the same wall she was working on. "If you want to start down there at the other end..." Her mind refused to move past the image engraved on her cornea as she automatically began to roll the paint brush up the wall. "You know, I think we might be able to recreate a lot of the old cases just by memory... I don't think I can forget some of them..." A mumble came from her right. "Well, I have to agree with you there. We've had some very... distinctive encounters..." Her words dropped off as she glanced over. Standing back with his thumb in the air in an artist's flourish, Mulder was admiring the saucer-like image he had dabbed on the wall. Even white on white, it was quite visible. "Mulder..." Adopting the tone she used with her godchild, Scully strode over to him; plucking the roller out of his hand. "You know that this is going to be where I have to live. And staring at a UFO in my living room is not going to get me into Better Homes and Garden." "But I think it adds a certain..." He paused. "Mystery to your room here... the type of image that imprints itself in your mind and stays there for a long time..." "Like our expense reports..." She groused, dipping the roller back into the paint. Handing it back to him, she pointed at the wall. "You have to apply the paint in even layers, Mulder - or I'll be sending you the bill for the real painters to redo all this." He smiled at her, letting a childish smile settle on his face. "How do you want it done?" "Here..." Putting her hand atop his, she pushed the roller onto the wall. "Up and down in even strokes, Mulder... up and down..." Moving in behind her, he nodded and repeated the words; his breath tickling the back of her neck. "Up and down in even strokes, Scully..." Closing her eyes, she summoned up a reserve of calmness as her hand rose and fell along the wall's surface; riding his hand as he took control. "So... should I be going faster or slower?" The request sent her heart into overdrive as she opened her eyes; noting that they had repainted the same small patch about five times. "Just paint, Mulder..." Stepping away from him, she avoided his eyes. "Just paint..." Walking back to her own area, she could feel him watching her. "Sure, Scully... just the way you like it..." Focusing in on the wall she applied all of her willpower and inner strength to work on the last few feet between her area and Mulder's. For his part, he remained silent and continued to apply the paint properly; erasing the saucer shape quietly and efficiently. Finally she dropped the roller back into the tray; taking a step back to survey the wall. "Not bad..." Mulder put his brush down as well, moving out of her sightline to let her see the entire wall. "I still say another colour would have been better... maybe a nice shade of green..." Scully scoffed. "The only green I ever see is in my refrigerator after we've been out of town for a few days. Besides, I happen to like white." "Hey, your place - your rules, Scully..." A chuckle. "Although I don't know what it says about you that you have to be so conformist in your colour selections..." Turning to face him, she saw him leaning against the doorframe leading down the hall to the rest of her apartment; his grey shirt speckled with small pinpricks of white. "Thank you, Mulder..." She smiled. "It would have taken a lot longer without your help..." Crossing his arms, he grinned. "Even with the painting lesson?" "Even with the painting lesson." Walking across the room to face him, Scully chuckled. "Although I have a feeling that you didn't need it..." Shrugging, Mulder glanced around the room. "I used to do a little work at home when I was younger. That is, before I heard of paying people to do this type of work for you." "Are you calling me cheap?" Now she was facing him, her own arms crossed in front of her in a parody of his own position. "Frugal." He shot back, watching her eyebrows soar with the half- insult. "I'll have you know that my mother painted our house when she was six months pregnant with me." "Which explains your lack of imagination, Scully - you were traumatised in the womb to only choose the lack of colour; which is what white is." His eyes teased her unmercifully. "I bet you even cheated on the Paint By Number kits..." Pursing her lips, she waited a minute before answering. "The colours were always wrong, anyway..." Smirking at his victory, Mulder waited before moving a half step towards her. "So you admit that you're rather... old-fashioned in your thinking. Restrictive. Unimaginative." If her eyebrows could have gone higher up her forehead, they would have. As it was, she settled for a scowl patented after years of dealing with older brothers. "I have my own way of thinking, Mulder. And I haven't seen you complain when it saves your butt. Or our jobs." She paused. "Besides, what's with this seduction act today? Not enough blue movies on your television tonight?" He pulled back, a frown settling on on his face. "What are you talking about?" Now fully annoyed, she waved her hands at him. "This... this half- naked posturing like I'm supposed to believe that this was something you thought up on the spur of the moment when you 'accidentally' showed up here a week ahead of schedule for our meeting. This verbal jousting, this 'stroking' and 'up and down' and the rest of it..." She caught her breath, feeling the burn in her cheeks as she finally dared to lock eyes with him. "If you want to ask me out, then do it - but this childish behaviour isn't getting you anywhere..." "Me?" He pointed at himself, his expression one of shock. "Hey, I'm not the one who's prancing around in here in a few scraps of clothing and teasing me with this panting..." "Painting..." "Whatever..." He continued. "You have me come in here and have to offer to help, since I can't very well walk out on you and let you handle this all..." "You have before. Walked out on me..." "That was different..." He wagged a finger at her angrily. "We had a meeting scheduled for today and you ignored it to try and set me up here to be with you." "Mulder..." Crossing the room in a few strides, the redhead tossed the sheet off her desktop; reaching for the memo book. "I have you written here very plainly for this stupid meeting..." A flip through the pages. "Not today but..." Flip-flip. "But..." Flip-flip. "Oh." "Oh?" "I seemed to have..." Now the burning in her cheeks was intense enough to set off her smoke detector. "Never mind, Mulder..." "I was right, then." Crossing his arms again, he smirked. "You forgot." "I made a mistake." "Same thing." "No, it's not..." Stomping back across the room to face him, she stared up into his face. "That still doesn't explain away your behaviour." "What behaviour?" "This teasing, this..." Another angry wave of the hands. "This touching me." "I haven't touched you since I walked in here, Scully." His tone was soft and low, almost mocking her in it's sincerity. "You know what I mean. It's not all in my mind." "I never said it was..." She blinked suddenly, wondering how she had suddenly gotten into very unfamiliar territory and why she felt like she was standing on wet sand that kept shifting with every sentence. "Mulder..." Exhaling the name, she sighed. "If you want to kiss me, then do it. Right here, right now." "Kiss you?" A boyish grimace. "Kiss my partner, Dana Scully?" "Don't you want to?" Now she was sounding like a teenager again, huddling behind the shed with the boy she wasn't supposed to be seeing out of school. "I don't know..." Mulder looked down, curling and uncurling his toes. "I mean, if you want me to kiss you then that's okay. I wouldn't want to do anything that you didn't want to." She sighed. "Just shut up and kiss me. Now." "Okay..." Wearing a grin that she would later realise signified that he had planned this all along, he bent down; both hands tucked behind his back to chastely brush her lips. But it wasn't. Suddenly her arms were around him and his around her and their lips were crashing together, tongues duelling frantically for dominance in an intense -can't-believe-it's-been-all-these-years- and-I-waited-this-long-I'm- such-a-fool sweeping back and forth across bruised lips and tongue and how-far-to-the-bed and who's- going-to-be-on-top and no gentleness here, just a ferocity and a hunger and you-taste-so-good rush of fluid and heat and dizziness because there wasn't enough air in the entire world to keep conscious. Then they were on the bed having somehow gotten down the hallway and Mulder was kneeling above her; pulling his shirt over his head in a rush and fumbling with the buttons on her own shirt with a growl and a grunt of annoyance and finally achieving victory by just ripping them off because he couldn't take the time because he had to swoop down and taste her again, swirl his tongue along the side of her face and up to nip at her earlobe while her hands roamed freely along his back and sides, dancing along the ribs and slipping down under the elastic of the boxer shorts without shame or warning or even asking because she knew what the answer was going to be. And suddenly they were both naked and there was no astonishment, no curiosity or fearfulness of how they looked. And then all was touch-me-there and oh-please-more and I-didn't- know-you-liked-that and the breathing grew faster as the skin grew hotter and slicker and twisting and turning and stroking and reaching and please-do-that and oh-that-tickles and roll-over-now and something that was supposed to be a joke that died on his lips because she was making those noises now; the ones he had only thought about in his dreams and she was making them to him and he was going to roar but it sounded like a whimper and then it was a whine and a cry as she met him there and crashed to earth as they melted in the burning sun. ********** "Mulder?" A breathless whisper in the dark. "Yah?" "I think I need to paint the bedroom." "What colour?" "How about a pastel green?" "I'll do it tomorrow..." ************** "Heart of a warrior, mind of a fool... soul of a romantic..." - Jackie St. George "If I quit now, they win..." - XF:FTF Visit The Dragon's Lair at http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Chamber/7976!!!