forelsket (x files, F)

[curlyq9393]

Hi friends! I know it's been a long time since I've written anything, but I've had an uncommonly hard year--both professionally and personally--and I haven't really had the emotional stamina to write anything. But I spent yesterday and Tuesday home from work sick (I'm a first year elementary teacher, and I caught the Head and Chest Cold Plague from Hell that was going around, and it subsequently turned into the Sinus Infection from Hell. Children! Germ magnets with zero personal boundaries) which meant I had extra time on my hands. I wrote what I intended to be a little ficlet but wound up being over 1,000 words because that's just who I am, apparently. It's X-Files, partially to celebrate that season 11 is officially A Thing, but also because if I have to be stuck at home sick when my girlfriend is over 600 miles away from me, it's nice to imagine Scully being sick with Mulder to care for her. Right? Or is that just me?

The title is an untranslatable Norwegian/Danish word that essentially means "the intense, almost unreal feeling that comes with the beginning of love, when you start to fall in love." I imagine it's something Mulder has experienced before, no? A few of the lines in this fic are borrowed from a fic an X-Files tumblr user wrote for me, only because they were so absolutely perfect and inspired me to write my own version.

Anyway. Onward!

~ ~ ~

“Scully.”

 

 

“What, Mulder?”

 

 

“Go home.”

 

 

“Doh.”

 

 

“Go home.”

 

 

“Doh,” Scully says, sniffling thickly. “I’b fide.”

 

 

Mulder rolls his eyes. “If you can’t say the ‘n’ in fine? You’re not fine.”

 

 

“Id’s jusdt a code,” Scully says, trying for upbeat—silly Mulder, don’t worry so much—but somewhere between the first and final syllables of what should’ve been a very simple sentence, she coughs, and then she coughs some more, and it rattles in her achy chest, even with the cocktail of cold medicines she’d taken that morning. Mulder’s answering wince manages to convey both sympathy and smug told-you-so-ness, which even she has to admit is an impressive feat. Her body produces an ugly hacking sound completely without her permission, and Mulder has the courtesy to turn away as she tries to discreetly rid herself of the probably semi-sentient gunk that’s taken up residence in her throat and lungs.

 

 

Mulder, eyebrows raised, opens his mouth to say something, but before he can manage to get the first word out, Scully doubles over into hands that spring up to cup her face. “Heh'EEktSCHHHiiEO!!”

 

 

“Scully—”

 

 

“Hih'tnSCHHeOO!!”

 

 

“I think you should—”

 

 

“Heh'IKtschhOO!”

 

 

“You know what? I’ll—”

 

 

“Hehhh...he'EEEEshtchhhOOO!!”

 

 

“Wait.”

 

 

Scully exhales a shuddering breath, but doesn’t lift her face from her hands. She jerks her head in the general direction of the tissue box, and Mulder quickly grabs a large handful and tucks them between Scully’s face and palms. She blows her nose for approximately forty-three seconds (Mulder times it), and when she finishes she looks up at Mulder, her nose bright red, her eyes teary and tired. Mulder resists a sudden urge to kiss her forehead until its frown lines all but disappear.

 

 

Scully shivers, sinking deeper into the lapels of her grey woolen sweater. Mulder twirls a pencil between the fingers of his left hand. Dust motes dance in the beams of milky, late-winter sunlight that filter through the small window high above them.

 

 

“The report can wait,” Mulder says.

 

 

“Bulder, I cad do it, jusdt led be see the files,” Scully says, punctuating her request with a violent sneeze.

 

 

“You’re barely speaking English, Scully,” he says. “And you’re shivering.”

 

 

“Iss jusdt code id here,” she says, gesturing with her handful of tissues.

 

 

“The thermostat is set to 80, Scully,” Mulder says. “My jacket and tie are already off. My sleeves are rolled up as high as they can go. If it gets any warmer I’m going to start getting indecent.”

 

 

Scully tries to roll her eyes but the vise that’s wrapped itself around her head has other plans. She whimpers without meaning to, and is grateful when Mulder doesn’t make some sort of pitying face in return. “Fide,” she says, sounding miserable. “Tage be hobe, Bulder. Please.”

 

 

He gets his keys and wraps his arm loosely around the small of her back and leads her out the door. She doesn’t protest or pull away, just leans into his warm weight, and that’s how Mulder knows she must feel even worse than she sounds. They stop at Stachowski’s so Mulder can get their biggest container of matzo ball soup. Scully quarantines herself in the car. The order only takes a few minutes to be ready, but when he gets back to the car he finds that Scully has fallen asleep, her head resting at an awkward angle on her shoulder. He gently shifts her so her neck won’t get stiff during the drive, and she murmurs fretfully.

 

 

They pull up to Scully’s apartment building and Mulder nudges her awake. They walk in together, Scully bleary eyed and sniffling into tissues Mulder procures seemingly out of nowhere. He serves them both heaping bowls of the soup at her kitchen table, along with slices of buttered rye toast. Scully sniffles and snuffles her way through about half of her bowl and a few small bites of toast, which Mulder considers a victory. Mulder polishes off his own bowl and steals Scully’s crusts, then points in the direction of her living room couch. Scully wordlessly complies.

 

 

Mulder turns the kettle on and drapes Scully in a navy fleece blanket. He finds a box of tissues in Scully’s bedroom and starts to leave it on the little round end table, but thinks better of it and drops it in her lap instead. She doesn’t laugh, but she does look slightly less strained as she coughs and hacks and sneezes into a fresh handful of tissues. Mulder brings in a steaming cup of mint tea and a dose of cherry cough medicine he found in her medicine cabinet. She tosses it back like she’s taking a shot and Mulder laughs out loud. Scully manages a small, wan smile.

 

 

Mulder settles in an armchair and Scully props herself up on a few throw pillows. “Tell be aboud the case,” she says, clearing her throat.

 

 

Mulder puts his elbows on his knees and rests his chin on top of laced fingers. “What if I read you something instead?”

 

 

Scully yawns a small, kittenish yawn. “Thad could be dice,” she says. “I’ve beed reading Bel Canto. Id’s od the coffee table.”

 

 

Mulder picks up the well-loved paperback and finds the bookmark that’s keeping her place. He turns pages her fingers have turned and quietly reads aloud, the words drifting like incandescent soap bubbles into the air. The afternoon takes on a syrupy sweet quality; the air is heavy and warm, and time seems to slow down, disappear. A universal invariant. But maybe not on sick days.

 

 

Mulder reads to her the story of people brought together under extraordinary and unfortunate circumstances, people without a common language among them, people who hate each other and fear each other and are brought together by something as simple as music. He wonders if it ever really is that simple. Scully makes it through twelve pages before her slow blinks turn into slow nods and her head drops down to her shoulder, just like it did in the car. Mulder wraps his arms carefully around her and eases her slightly down on the pillows, though elevated enough to help with drainage. In her sleep she sighs, and it’s perhaps the most contented sound Mulder has ever heard. On her breath he smells the bittersweet chemical tang of the cough syrup, the heat of her fever, the faint salt of soup broth.

 

 

Mulder lightly runs his fingers through Scully’s hair, just the once, and then goes back to the armchair. He reads more of the book, lulled into an uncommonly calm state by the steady rise and fall of Scully’s chest, the congested hitch of her breathing.

 

 

The afternoon slides on like butter, and he waits for healing.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2017 by curlyq9393

[silentdreamer789]

This is gorgeous!

[curlyq9393]

43 minutes ago, silentdreamer789 said:

This is gorgeous!

ahhhhhhhh, thank you! X-Files hurt/comfort sickfic is my writing home, truly. {and I'm lowkey hoping this will inspire more people to post X-Files fics because I've been missing seeing that on here}

[Vetinari]

Lovely writing. I love the way you interspersed Mulder speaking with the sneezes. Also the drifting feeling that started to overtake them both at the end.

Hope you feel better soon (though I hope that wouldn't stop you writing!).

[NoV]

Always love reading X-files sneezefics - it takes me back to being in my mid-teens and having such a crush on Gillian Anderson. I was always so disappointed she didn't sneeze in one of the episodes (although there is an out-take drifting around somewhere of her sneezing during filming). Nice writing    

[Xsneezelover3932]

Yes yes yes!!! So happy to login to the forum for the first time in a few months and find this gem!! You always capture Mulder and Scully so wonderfully!! I, too, am celebrating season 11! So so happy and can't wait! Also, hope you're feeling better by now. Please be inspired to write some more fics and I hope others will too.  

[Sapphire]

I logged in to say thank you for this fic. I'm a teacher too (not elementary), and I've found that teaching can easily consume one's life and that setting boundaries is very challenging. I am the same in that I am generally unable to write fetish stuff unless I am on break from teaching. I can only imagine that elementary school teaching would be even more over the top, especially in the first year. I haven't written a thing myself in ages, but I will see how the summer goes. Anyway, I appreciate your taking the time to write. 

[lifelove1]

On 5/6/2017 at 9:49 AM, NoV said:

Always love reading X-files sneezefics - it takes me back to being in my mid-teens and having such a crush on Gillian Anderson. I was always so disappointed she didn't sneeze in one of the episodes (although there is an out-take drifting around somewhere of her sneezing during filming). Nice writing    

WORD  Curlyq9393, it's awesome to see you back in the swing of writing! Scully sickfics are my absolute fave and this is so tender and sweet. Hope you're feeling better and feeling up to writing more soon! (And hope this inspires other lurkers to write more XF fics too...)

[Bruyere]

Ahhhh, this was lovely and just what I wanted to read right now.

On 05/05/2017 at 2:36 AM, curlyq9393 said:

He gets his keys and wraps his arm loosely around the small of her back and leads her out the door. She doesn’t protest or pull away, just leans into his warm weight, and that’s how Mulder knows she must feel even worse than she sounds.

<3

[turtlesneeze]

Love it! Eloquent writing!