Title: Wild Things: Part One: Where They Are
Author: RocketMan

Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox. No
infringement is intended.

1. Where They Are

"Your mother never read you 'Where the Wild Things Are,' Scully?" he
asks, his face the most astonished that I have ever seen it.

"And obviously your mother did," I say, my eyebrow raising to indicate
his subtle oddities - the tie askew, the dress shoes that don't match
exactly with his suit, not to  mention the look of mystery that steals
across his face.

His face reflects the small hurt that did and he says, "Yes, she did.
Your mother must have been quite lacking in her duties, Scully, to-"

I raise my hand. "Mulder," I say softly, my voice almost threatening.
"Let's not get started on mothers, because you know you would lose hands
down."

His eyes flicker and his face never changes, but I hurt him. I'm not
sure if I meant to or not.

"Anyway, Scully, the book is about a boy named Max who gets sent to bed
without his supper and his room turns into a jungle. He finds a sea and
travels across it for forever until he lands where the wild things live.
They make him king and he has fun for a while, but then he starts to
miss his mother, so he sails back home to find his supper waiting for
him."

Mulder's face looks almost childish as he recounts his tale and I don't
want to laugh, but I can't stiffle it all and a noise escapes my mouth.
He looks to me, his jaw working and his eyes glinting and I realize I
have gone too far.

I think I have found where the wild things are in Mulder.

"Scully . . . " he says softly, his eyes taking on the hue that always
signals storms.

"Mulder, I-"

"You just love messing with me, don't you?"

I jerk back as his hand snakes out.

"Well, no, Mulder. I don't-"

"Yes." he says, answering for me. "You do. But what I'm trying to figure
out is if you do it to purposefully hurt me, or out of some kind of
woman's reflex."

He's playing the same game today.

"Woman's reflex?"

"Yes, that must be it. So, taking this into consideration, I'll let it
go for now."

Yes, he definitely knows how to push my buttons, find the wild things in
me.

"Let it go for now?" I say, my voice dangerously low.

"What's wrong, Scully, can you not understand my last few words, is that
why you're repeating them?"

"What?!" I say, my own eyes swirling like a tumultuous sea.

I stand in front of him, my hands clenched unconsciously and my lips
parted and he's sitting calmly, laughing at me.

I quickly cross my arms over my chest and sit back down, glaring at him.
"You did that on purpose, Mulder."

He gives me a quirky smile. "So, maybe you'll shut up and listen now,
huh?"

I feel my muscles bunch under my jaw, and he sees how incredibly peeved
I am at him and he smiles.

Which, of course, makes me livid.

I stand and start stalking to the door.

He moves quickly, capturing me before I can leave and blocks my way.

I say nothing only try my stare on him.

He seems to be impervious to it.

"We have worked entirely too long together," I say, shaking my head.

He freezes.

My head shoots up to see him, to try and take away what I said. He's much
too sensitive for his own good.

"Mulder," I say softly, "That's not how I meant it."

He moves away, as if saying, go on and leave, I'm not standing in your
way.

"Mulder . . . "

He looks to me, then gives me a little smile. "I guess so, if you know
me that well, huh?"

I smile reassuringly. "But it's good."

I seem to be lacking in words today to describe this.

"Yeah." he agrees and sits down on his desk.

His eyes close for an instant.

"Max gets his supper in the end, Scully, and it turns out he wasn't
really gone."

It takes me a moment to catch up with his radical jumps in thought.

"Oh. What does that have to do with our next assignment?"

"Huh?" he says, looking at me.

"This case, about the Santa Claus who says he was taken up by aliens?"

HIs head kind of jerks. "What? Oh, nothing."

I stare at him for a moment.

We went through that entire thing for nothing?

Wild.

end
adios
RM