UFOs and Crop Circles

Scully tries her hand at speed dating. MSR.

"What's that you've got there?"

Scully immediately buried the object in question underneath a pile of paperwork, a flush colouring her dainty cheeks. The answer was immediate and rushed. "Nothing."

Mulder didn't look like he believed her, but let it go. Scully relaxed, and left a few minutes later to go to the toilet. Mulder grinned at the opportunity, and did a hurried search where she had been sitting. A few seconds later, he pulled out a small book and smiled. Victory. He leafed through it, and a piece of paper with a time and place floated to the floor. Mulder tucked it in his pocket just as Scully returned. "Mulder, have you seen my…" she trailed off. "Never mind."

Mulder feigned a curious look. "Seen your what, Scully?"

She shook her head, "Never mind." Mulder shrugged.

The bell rang and Scully almost breathed a sigh of relief. So far, this had been a bad idea. The men she'd met consisted of a man who seemed to be in love with his computer, a lifeguard who had seemed a bit stalker type, an obese man who liked cheese and beer, smelling of both, a fifty year old who thought that everyone needed to know about his sex life, and a farmer whose greatest accomplishment was winning prize for biggest pig at the festival.

"Hi, I'm Dana…" she stopped mid sentence as her tongue caught around the words when she looked up. Brown hair and eyes. Those eyes. "Mulder?"

A grin danced on his features as he saw the beginnings of a smile on her lips. "Hi, Dana Mulder. Isn't it funny, my name's Mulder too." He quipped.

His voice was annoyingly optimistic, for just having interrupted her evening. Anger overcame her suddenly. "Why are you here?"

He looked around innocently. "Who, me? I'm just trying out a little thing called speed dating."

She glared at him. "Mulder," her voice carried a warning that he chose to ignore. Instead, he produced a little book.

"So," he began, flipping through it. "how would you like to talk about UFOs and Crop Circles?"

Sully snatched the book from his hand. "It does not say to say that!"

Mulder shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It says to avoid those topics. But hey, what do you expect? And why would you want someone so boring that they don't even talk about that sort of stuff?"

Scully rolled her eyes. The question didn't even warrant an answer. "Mulder, really, why are you here?"

Mulder put the book down with a smile and Scully snatched it back and shoved it in her handbag, embarrassed. "I knew you'd be here."

"And? Surely we don't have a case right now, Mulder." Scully shook her head, exasperated.

Mulder shook his head. "No, we don't. I was just coming for fun?" it came out more of a question than he had intended.

"You think that annoying me is fun?"

"That's not what I said, Scully. Maybe it had nothing to do with you. Maybe I want to meet people." He cringed at the blatant lie.

Scully scoffed. "Yeah, right. A girl would be crazy not to like you. You don't need speed dating."

Mulder looked at her sternly. "You don't either. Don't sell yourself short, Dana," he warned. "Any guy would be crazy not to fall completely in love with you."

"Are you crazy?" it was said in a joking tone, but both knew that she was serious.

It took a few seconds for Mulder to work out what exactly she meant as he ran over what he'd said. "Oh." Suddenly he looked very embarrassed. His tone became light and joking, matching hers, in an attempt to save face before he even lost it. "Well, no. I might look it, but I'm really not,"

He looked down. Scully reached for his hand. "Mulder?"

He looked up again.

"Me too." The conversation might not have made much sense, and they couldn't say it directly, but they understood. Mulder's eyes brightened and he reached across the table and cupped her face in his hands. They communicated silently for a few moments, before the bell rang.

Looking at each other, they nodded. Both stood up, and walked toward the door. As they left, Scully reached for his hand and squeezed it. He squeezed back.

Authors Notes: I was in the bookshop with friends, and one of them picked up the little book of speed dating. Under what not to talk about, it had astrology, UFOs, crop circles and something else that I can't remember. It made me think of this. Since I've really only seen season one (I know, I know) you'll have to assume it takes place during that time. It's my first X-Files fic, so I hope you enjoyed, please review and tell me what you thought. Merry Christmas everyone!