{ hello there! welcome to a short little fanfic we wrote for the scratch writing camp competition. :D happy reading! } { fandom: x-files } { for all those wondering, i do have some art (that isn’t x-files, by some miracle) to post either today or tomorrow, so keep an eye out for that! i know this isn’t quite our normal content, but we weren’t sure where to post this otherwise. thanks for bearing with us :] } - - Outside Seattle. November 18, 1994. Scully leaned back in the creaky motel chair and stifled a sigh. She’d far from completed the report, and despite the clock reading just 8:13, she was exhausted. It didn’t help that her partner was wearing on her ears and her patience. Though it came from the room next door, the audio from whatever he was watching seemed to be playing right in her ear. Scully shook her head, resting her fingers on the keyboard again. A yawn decided it was a perfect time to attack her, so it took her a moment to notice that the noise from the other room had disappeared. By then, Mulder was already knocking on her door. Setting her glasses down beside the computer, Scully answered the door. “Hi,” she said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, blinking herself into focus, and hoping she didn’t look as tired as she felt. “You have to come see this.” Mulder raised the car keys, and his eyebrows, with a smile. Scully blinked. “See what, exactly?” “We’ll miss it if we don’t leave right now.” He turned to leave, then swiveled back around to face her. “Oh, and make sure to bring a coat.” Scully watched from the doorway as he trotted off towards the car. She had to admit to some curiosity, but she also didn’t want to move. The sound of the car engine igniting had a sense of finality to it, though, and Mulder watched her expectantly through the fogged windshield. At last allowing herself the sigh that had been building up for so long, Scully cast a forlorn look at the computer, which held her unfinished report. She grabbed her coat and bundled herself up against the late autumn evening. Locking the motel room door, she climbed into the passenger seat. Mulder was impatiently tapping on the steering wheel when she joined him. The minute she buckled in, he drove off without a word. “Where are we going?” Scully asked. Sometimes she felt like a broken record. “Away from the city lights,” Mulder said. Scully nodded, resigned to the fact that he would not be more helpful. In two years, she’d at least learned this. She’d just have to wait and see what he had to show her—a prospect as exciting as it was frustrating. That didn’t keep her from another sigh as she turned her head to watch him. The ever-present package of sunflower seeds sat in his lap, and he still drummed his fingers against the steering wheel. “I still have to finish my report, you know,” she informed him. Mulder shrugged, fishing out a sunflower seed. “So do I.” Scully pursed her lips. He glanced her way and smiled. A silence elapsed, and Scully leaned her forehead against the glovebox, hair falling in red sheets around her face. “The plane leaves early tomorrow.” “C’mon, Scully, this’ll be fun, trust me,” Mulder said before cracking another seed between his teeth. She turned to face him, cheek still resting on the plastic surface. She trusted that Mulder would find it fun, anyway. They’d reached a suburban area that shifted gradually into farmland. Mulder parked beside a field in a patch of the unruly grass somewhat tamed by gravel. Scully figured their badges could probably get them out of an argument with an angry farmer. But if they didn’t, she wouldn’t let him hear the end of it. Mulder strolled to the middle of the tall grass and craned his head up. Scully joined him, following his gaze. “What am I looking for?” Scully asked. Mulder glanced at his watch. “The moon.” They stared at it, hovering full and bright in the black sky, for a few moments. Scully leaned over. “Wait, don’t tell me. Are we waiting for aliens to steal it?” She smiled up at him, but he didn’t have time to react because suddenly he was grabbing her shoulder and pointing. “Look!” he exclaimed right in her ear. {cont. below}
{cont. from above} Frowning, Scully tried to see what he was talking about. She even stood on her tiptoes reflexively, which, surprisingly enough, didn’t help her see the object hundreds of thousands of miles away. “Mulder, I don’t see anything.” “You don’t see that?” he was grinning, not tearing his eyes from the sky or his hand from her shoulder. Scully couldn’t decide between rolling her eyes and laughing. She laughed. “See what, Mulder?” “The moon.” “Yes, I see the moon. I don’t see what’s so special about it.” “It’s a penumbral eclipse, Scully,” he said. She squinted at the white globe in the sky. It looked the same as always. Mulder glanced down, still smiling, arm falling around her shoulders. “See?” Scully shook her head. “No.” He leaned in to see from her line of sight. His finger traced the sky. “It’s darker; see the underside?” “Okay….” She thought she could see it, a shadow drifting like a cloud over the full moon’s pale surface, but it kind of felt like her imagination. It was perfectly absurd, in a way that made Scully want to smile back and forget the report sitting at her desk and the airplane departing at 8:00 tomorrow morning. “It’s falling under the penumbra of the Earth’s shadow. So it’s darker, but doesn’t disappear at all,” Mulder explained. “Pretty rare.” “Uh-huh.” Scully nodded. “What,” Mulder laughed, “it didn’t live up to your expectations?” “Mulder, I didn’t have any expectations.” “Uh-huh.” Mulder nodded, finally looking away from the ever-so-slightly-shadowed moon, a half smile gracing the corners of his lips. She side-eyed him. “It should last for another few hours,” he said. Scully looked at her watch and sat down in the grass, which went up to her shoulders. “Yeah. I don’t know that I will, Mulder.” He sat beside her, gaze fixed upwards once more. “Do you always do this?” she asked, “run out to see the eclipse?” “Happens just twice a year, Scully. And that’s if we’re lucky.” “Mm.” Scully tilted her head. The moon did look darker. Probably. Mulder leaned back, the stars reflecting in his eyes. “I started doing it when I was thirteen or so. The night sky helps me think.” After Samantha was taken, Scully realized. She’d never met Mulder’s sister, but that didn’t stop the heavy, helpless feeling in her gut whenever Scully thought of her. Well, he wasn’t alone any longer, Scully reminded herself. More than a decade had passed since Samantha’s disappearance. Together they stared up at the vast darkness above their heads, the pinpricks of light breaking its surface, the shadowed moon. Soon enough, the rare eclipse would be over. Soon enough, the moon would light up the sky as brightly as it had when it first rose. Soon enough, the moon would set, and soon after that, they would be on a plane, headed back to D.C. Headed back to another case, or another day at the office, or another late night finishing their reports. She wondered if that was why Mulder liked watching it. No matter who was abducted or who died or what case they investigated…the world kept spinning. Even if darkness covered the moon from time to time, the shadow would just as surely pass. “I know what you mean,” she said. Happy, despite the cold and exhaustion, to sit there under the night sky, thinking with him. Eventually, they stood and left the field behind. With the hum of the engine and the crackle of sunflower seeds in her ears, Scully drifted off to sleep. And the world kept spinning. - - word count: 1,263 { this is a joint entry between @criminal-intent and @violent-measures. thanks to everyone who offered critique for this piece <3 } { song is venus by sleeping at last }
