Title: Distraction Author: shawntaw Rating: G Disclaimer: Not mine. Just borrowing. Spoilers: Early in the series, maybe end of first season?...no more exact than that:) Summary: Boredom leads to a little friendly UST between friends... Author's Note: A gift to myself on my birthday:) Just a little interlude to entertain myself. Send feedback and make my birthday even better at shawntaw@hotmail.com. ********************************************************************** Phwack! Phwack! Scully raised her eyes from her computer screen to peer over her glasses at Mulder. He sat, tilted back in defiance of gravity, feet crossed on his utterly messy desk. His jacket half-hung from the back of his chair and he had rolled his formerly crisp white sleeves up past his elbows. His loud and obnoxious tie hung loose around his unbuttoned collar. None of this in itself was unusual. What held Scully's attention is that he still wore his 'professor' glasses - as she thought of them - and was flinging pencils into the ceiling over his desk. "What are you doing, Mulder?" "Relieving boredom," he answered without looking. Phwack! She arched a disapproving eyebrow at him, but secretly she was impressed. How did he get them to stick? Scully thought about it for a moment and decided it couldn't hurt to ask. Besides she was bored too, truth be told. "So, how do you get them to stick?" She got up from her 'station' and walked casually over to him. "Huh?" He was concentrating. Maybe he was trying to make some sort of pattern of pencils in the ceiling over his desk. "I said," she grabbed the pencil in his hand, "How do you get them to stick?" He finally looked at her, snatching back the pencil. "Its all in the sharpening, Scully. Its all in the sharpening." Mulder looked up at the ceiling as he prepared to launch another missile. Phwack! He looked over at her in surprise. She was staring up at her handiwork. "Not bad," he complimented as he tossed his own pencil up to stick beside hers. "You know," she said, sharpening another pencil in his electric pencil sharpener, "we're not getting any work done this way." Phwack! Plink! Scully's pencil fell and bounced off Mulder's desk. "Practice makes perfect," Mulder commented and flung his pencil upward. It stuck, of course. She arched her brow at him again, sharpened her pencil for a second time and looking up, let it rip. She knocked two of his pencils from the ceiling with the impact of hers. THWACK!! Mulder picked a pencil out of his hair and one from his lap. "Geez, a little competitive, are we?" Scully blushed slightly. She was actually very competitive. "Practice makes perfect," she said instead, quoting him. Mulder drew his legs back from the top of his desk with a sigh. Apparently, he was now bored of this game as well. She figured it was back to work and walked back to her area, sitting down and turning back to her report on the computer screen. "zzzzzttt...favorite oldies and...zzzzttt...hiphop on the airwaves! Next is the latest...zzzttt.." Scully looked up again. Mulder was fiddling with the knobs on a small radio on one of the shelves in the back of the records area in their crowded basement office. "I didn't even know we HAD a radio," she said loudly to him over the static. "I haven't turned it on in a while, but I figured now is a good a time as any," he responded, twisting the tuner knob. "Mulder, the A.D. wants these reports by morning," she reminded him. She had to at least try to get him back on task, although she'd already learned in the short time she'd been with him that once he got like this it was best to let it run its course. "Yeah, yeah," Mulder merely responded, settling on a country station. "Yeehaw, Scully. You know how to two-step?" Mulder held his arms around an imaginary partner and began two-stepping across the floor. "Where'd you learn that?" She watched, fascinated. Mulder, the New Englander, knew how to two-step?! "At Oxford from a girl who hailed from Texas," he said, putting on a terrible southern accent and surprising her by pulling her to standing by the wrist. "Here, I'll show you how." He pulled her close and clasped her hand in his and their other arms automatically went to shoulders and waists where every boy and every girl are taught to put their hands when dancing. Still, Scully protested, "Mulder, I don't think this is very appropriate-" she began. "Its just dancing, Scully," he said with an amused smile, "Two friends dancing. What's wrong with that?" "Is that what it would look like if someone walked in here right now?" she returned firmly. "Probably not, considering we're standing here arguing with our arms around each other," he said, leering, "NOW, are you ready to dance?" Scully pressed her lips together. This man could infuriate her! "Fine. Dance," she said shortly and looked at their feet. "One, two, one," Mulder said, shuffling, "One, two, one." She followed and soon they were doing a simple two-step back and forth in an irregular circle between their desks. "That's pretty much it," Mulder said, staring at their feet, "I mean, when you're good at it, you can put spins in and stuff like that, but I was never that good." A new song came on the radio with a nice, slow, regular twang to it. Mulder and Scully two-stepped in silence, concentrating on their feet. Mulder chanced a glance at Scully's face and saw that she was looking back. He was instantly embarrassed. "Hey, look at us. We're so good at this now, we don't even have to look at our feet." She smiled uneasily. "We really should get back to work now, Mulder." But they danced until the song ended, looking at one another intently. The radio continued, babbling a series of commercials after the song ended, but the two agents merely stood still in the middle of their office, frozen in each other's arms. "Thanks for the dance, Scully," Mulder finally said. She extricated herself from his arms, her face pink. "No problem, Mulder. Thanks for the lesson." "Anytime," he said softly and the two parted. Scully sat immediately at her desk, cursing her fair skin. Mulder clicked off the radio and, with one last glance in her direction, went back to his desk. Soon, the sounds of Scully's typing and Mulder's sorting filled the silence of the office, the dancing behind them. But not forgotten. ********************************************************************** Ahhh, the early years...The UST...the newness of falling in love *sigh*