#and bc i was so ''clever'' my deodorant is at home bc i left the bag that had my toothbrush & cleanser etc in my room when i got my bikini

[yukinyaminyato]

when the sleepover at a friend's place unexpectedly extends for one more night and u haven't packed for that & also u already took your toiletries home earlier during the day bc u had to go to get your swimsuit to go to the beach & u had thought u'd just go back home in the evening but ........ 🥲

[scapegrace74-blog]

Nine-Tenths of the Law

A/N  This fic was originally posted as a response to a prompt by @medicaldoctordana.  The original post appears to be corrupted, so here is the fic as a stand-alone.  The prompt was: ficlet where Mulder accidentally moves in bc Scully stole all his clothes.  I’ve made one tiny but important update: the jersey Scully is wearing no longer belongs to Washington’s soon-to-be-renamed football team!  I also gave it a clever title.

There was a muted bang, the hush of worsted wool rubbing itself, a minor chord of complaint from the hardwood.  She surfaced towards the upper strata of sleep, pulled there by a riddle.

Why was her apartment behaving as though someone else lived there?

She forced an eyelid open, murky with too little sleep, and caught a dark blue blur as it entered her bathroom.  The medicine cabinet opened and closed, then the sudden downpour of her faucet.

“Mulder?” she called out warily.

“Yeah, Scully.  It’s me.   Where’s the aftershave I left here on Tuesday?”

She sat up and tried to concentrate.  On Tuesday he’d borrowed her shower, because his building’s hot water heater gave out.  When she’d ventured into the fragrant mist he’d left behind, she’d discovered a small dopp kit on the closed lid of the toilet.

“It’s under the sink, with the sweatshirt you hung up to dry behind the door before we left for San Antonio.”

“That’s where that went,” he muttered, mostly to himself.

Fully awake now, she donned her robe and wandered into the kitchen, muted grey in the pre-dawn light.  Her coffee maker was already percolating.  The Post was on the table, open to the sports section.   She split a bagel and popped it into the toaster, thought for a moment, then split and lowered a second one.

He strode into her kitchen, the tips of his hair still a bit damp, two ends of a burgundy tie hanging dangerously close to the open tub of margarine on her counter as he grabbed two mugs from her cupboard and poured their coffee.

“Did you shower here, Mulder?”

He finished a bite of bagel slathered in peanut butter, depositing her lightly buttered one on a plate beside the paper before answering.

“Nah, I caught one at the gym, but I didn’t have any fresh dress shirts in my car.  Figured you’d have laundered the one I spilled ketchup on last week by now, so I swung by here on the way to work, instead of back-tracking to Alexandria.”

Mollified, she bit into her bagel and scanned the headlines as he leaned against the sink and sipped his coffee.

“The Senate sent that appropriations bill back to the House.  At this rate, our pay cheques will start bouncing by next month,” she remarked after a minute.

“Saw that.  Scully?”

“Hmmm?” She flipped idly to the real estate section.

“I’m thrilled to see my Ravens jersey live out a second life as your sleepwear, but at this rate if any more of my things start calling your apartment home, I’m going to have to move here in order to re-establish custody.”

She blushed pink as the rising sun, but tried to hide it behind her bed-tousled hair.  He licked peanut butter from his left knuckle, looking oddly satisfied for a man wearing lily scented deodorant.