TITLE:  ALEGRIA
AUTHOR:  EMMA BAKER
E-MAIL:  emmalanna@aol.com

DISCLAIMER: The characters herein are the property of Fox
Broadcasting and 1013 Productions. The situation into which I have
placed them is of my own creation.

CATEGORY: V, MSR

RATING: NC-17 (Rating changed by webmistress)
ARCHIVAL: Please archive at Gossamer. Please contact me before
placing at specialty archives. Do not forward to ATXC.

SUMMARY: A sequel to my earlier story, "Laughing".

My prolificity of late astonishes even me ;). For those who have
read my trilogy of vignettes ("Burn", "Inside", and "Million") and
asked me just how Mulder and Scully became lovers in my little
universe, please consider this your answer <g>. I began to write
this and realized that I love the idea that my M&S could have their
first coupling be marked by joy and laughter instead of angst.

This story is for Chris, an online friend who brings me a great deal
of joy and laughter.

All feedback gratefully received at alanna@ibm.net.


ALEGRIA ("Joy")
By Emma Baker

********

The most important thing that dying taught me was that as you're
lying in a hospital bed, the life slowly being siphoned from your
body, you don't remember all the wonderful things you did, but rather
all the things you didn't do. All the things you didn't have time
for, that just didn't seem proper or you didn't really care about at
the time -- those things suddenly take on the most amazing importance.
Nothing else matters but achieving them.

Things like spending more time with my nieces and nephew, so
they might have fond memories of their Aunt Dana to carry them to
adulthood. Like taking time to travel and go where *I* want to go,
not simply where the day takes me. Or maybe just that -- to go
exactly where the day DOES take me. To be more spontaneous, more
honest with myself and with others. To tell them just what they
really mean to me now, not in some distant future, because that future
might suddenly cease to exist.

The most important person in my life is here with me.

And we are laughing together.

Mulder lies below me, on the soft, rich earth where we have
collapsed in a fit of laughter and joy. He is so beautiful. The
light rain casts a sheen over his face and mixes with the soft tears
of happiness spilling over his eyelids. Tiny flecks of red clay soil
sift through his hair as he looks at me. Oh, God, the look in his
eyes. I can scarcely find the words for it. I feel like a goddess.
His gaze softens and deepens, all the while piercing me. Something
rich and warm lurks behind it, spilling out and over like the sound of
our laughter. A smile of pure, childlike joy still lingers on his
parted lips.

I love him. And I know he loves me. It is etched into every pore of
his beautiful skin.

I'm alive. He is here. Why can't I tell him? Why should I not?

"Hey." My voice sounds shy and still hoarse from all my
laughing.

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

As the words form on my lips, my face breaks into a smile of pure
radiance. I can't see it, and yet I see it reflected in Mulder's
astonished face, a sheen of sheer wonder spreading over it. Does he
believe me? He is still under me, his hands having gone slack on my
back as he tries to process just what is happening. I can barely
comprehend it myself. And yet, it feels so right. So very right.
And so pure. His fingers slowly begin to trace over my back, their
featherweight touch igniting my soul. I rise and fall with his every
deep breath. I have to tell him everything in my heart right now,
while we are still immersed in our bubble of joy.

"I love you." I nuzzle the soft, pliant skin of his chin.

"You love me?" I look back up at him, smile, and nod. His face is so
beautiful, so perfect. I realize I have bestowed upon him the
greatest gift I could ever possibly have given. And I watch his face
and his body open that gift and blossom with joy. He's such an
amazing man and I feel so powerful that I help to make him that way.

"Yes. I'm so proud of you -- of what you do, of who you are." I kiss
the faint stubble on his jawbone, feeling its hardness against my
lips. Every touch is new to me, and I relish the sensations greedily.
But they are also timeless, born of a love nascent for years but only
now consummated. We did not have time, but we do now. Because we are
alive. And we stand, poised on the thrilling precipice of forever.

"I fear for you and what you'll do for me and for us." I bury my face
in the soft plane of his temple, brushing my lips against his ear. My
face and my voice have darkened. I do fear for him -- for the leaps
he makes, for the risks he takes in the name of Truth. And yet....

"I believe in you." The joy has returned -- the fear having made this
joy so much sweeter. I kiss the space between his eyes, mirroring the
place in me where the cancer had been discovered such a short time
ago. I move my lips down his nose, coming to rest against his own
lips. I stay there, breathing against him. His eyes meld with mine
own. And then he speaks.

"I love you." Our lips are touching and I'm able to feel him saying
the words -- the way the tiny puffs of air bounce against my lips, the
way his tongue slides across his teeth and flicks against my mouth as
he says the "L", the way he curls his lip inward with the "v", and the
way his lips pucker when he says "you". The phrase itself is like a
kiss -- so sweet and pure, and yet so sensual.

And my body stirs, overwhelming me. I wonder if he can feel it
too, feel the blood rushing through my veins and pooling in my
abdomen and heart.

"I want you." I punctuate my words with my own lips, capturing
his fiercely and hungrily. Tenderness has given way to a deep
desire erupting from both our souls, a perfect complement to the
passionate laughter which has brought us here. I push my tongue
through the barrier of his lips, his teeth. His mouth tastes of joy.
We devour each other as our bodies quickly awaken. I press my body
into his, willing him to consume me, to take me into himself. The
tingling of my skin reminds me of laughter. If joy can be
personified, then let it be me.

I am joy. We are joy, as we lay here together, soaking into each
other.

And the rain begins soaking into our skin. It is coming down
softly, misting over our faces. I feel drunk, giddy. Drunk on
Mulder. His face is so close to mine that I can feel its warmth. The
taste of his tongue against mine enthralls me. I pour my soul into
him. His body feels so warm under mine, so hard. So soft. I sink
into it.

We kiss. My God, Mulder and I kiss. The idea would be
overwhelming if it weren't so incredibly arousing. In a spark of
clarity, I realize that in this perfect moment, I have achieved
everything I need to achieve in this life for me to be considered
whole. I have beaten death and I have become a lover. Anything more
and I would attain nirvana.

But first, we need to breathe.

I pull my face back slightly, gasping for air. Mulder's hands creep
under the hem of my t-shirt and caress my back. His eyes caress my
face. He looks at me with awe.

"We're alive." The words slip out of his mouth with a whisper of joy.

I love him.

I bend down quickly and brush my lips across his, then bring my
legs down to straddle him and raise my body so that I am sitting
above him, on top of the world. On top of *my* world. He is my
everything and he gazes up at me with a pure, beautiful love. I
clasp one hand, then the other, and bring them up to my waist.

A question hovers on his lips, mingling with a soft smile.

"We've wasted so much time. Why waste more? We have
forever."

The smile explodes across his face. His hands slowly inch up my
sides, pulling my shirt above my head. My breathing has become
heavy, along with my heart and head. And I realize that I don't
need him physically. I don't need his hands on me, his body
beneath me. I simply need him. Everything else is an added
bonus, an affirmation of the bond we share.

I sit above him, clad only in my bra and jeans. He lays below me,
wearing a white long-sleeved henley t-shirt and jeans. The light rain
begins to soak his shirt, giving me a glimpse of tawny skin
underneath. I think right here I've captured what it means to live --
to lay in a field of green leaves with the one I love, as rain slowly
spills over us. I could never move from this place and still be
deliriously happy.

My hands move under his shirt, caressing his skin. He arches his back
just slightly and I move my hands underneath, pushing the soft cotton
fabric up and over his head. It tangles on his arms and we laugh
together, then I take one arm in my hands and remove a sleeve, then
repeat my attentions with the other.

He lies back against the earth. The verdant leaves of the kudzu
frame his body. We lie together on a lush carpet of emerald
green. It is alive too. How wonderful. And we're all breathing
together.

We begin to devour each other once again, roaming our hands over
our mutual expanses of bared skin. It's such a wonderful feeling --
skin mixing with rain mixing with life. His hands close around my
back and somehow unfasten my bra, then slide it over my shoulders. I
grin and can't resist a small biting kiss on his earlobe. He gasps.
Wow.

Every moment of our lives together has built up to this moment,
when we are in each other's arms and slowly beginning to make
love. Slowly. Tenderly. Making it last. Enough time for passion
later --- right now, we simply need to learn each other.

And we do. Somehow, in a haze of joy and desire, our jeans are
shed and we lie together with no barriers. Our bodies move
instinctively, naturally. I am inside him and he inside me. We
touch each other everywhere, moving in synchrony. And then we explode
together, the vines and raindrops the audience for our cries and
moans.

As we lie together afterward, still consumed with each other, he
brings his hand up and brushes hair out of my face, tucking it
behind my ear. The tenderness of this simple motion eclipses
anything we have felt together all day, all year, all our lives. And
I know that he loves me.

And I love him.

And we laugh together.


********
END (1/1).



~~~~~ Emma Baker, emmalanna@aol.com ~~~~~
"Oh my god! They killed Kenny!" "You bastard!"
--South Park.
www.concentric.net/~alanna
my new fanfic page.... www.concentric.net/~alanna/fanfic.html