#cecilysass asked

[invidiosa]

Favorite fic: Words, Words, Words. I also really enjoy that conversation in Surely Not The Devil.

(I will say that in poking around your site, I found several I don’t know that I have read yet! So maybe I will have to revisit my answer.)

For the followers’ favourite fanfic of yours ask.

Thank you so much @cecilysass! They were fun stories to write. It's always very humbling when someone remembers some of my old stories from many many years ago. I appreciate you taking the time to answer!

poke away! Enjoy!

[randomfoggytiger]

Fictober prompts, take or leave:

- As part of a case, one or both agents are “cursed” with losing the ability to speak (or whatever case-related reason you want to give it). They have to communicate / argue about causes anyway

- Scully observes Teena and Mulder interacting and has some kind of reaction (angry, protective, frustrated?) to that she feels she can’t fully express to him

- Melissa appears as a ghost to Mulder, which I know you hate because it breaks the ghost rules. But maybe you can think of a very pressing and “logical” reason. (Cancer arc? As part of the Amor Fati dream sequence we didn’t see? When he’s in PTSD season 8?)

You clocked me with the ghost one. XDDD

But these are all verrrrrry interesting, yes. Going to have fun exploring them.

[fine-nephrit]

🥏 Where to find good XF fanfics

👽 On Tumblr

@lilydalexf has an encyclopedic knowledge of fics and continues to be an invaluable resource. You'll find a boatload of themed fic lists, individual rec posts and helpful answers to anon asks.

@txf-fic-chicks-blog seven years of almost daily recs, with well-written blurbs and a lot of fun, run by @kateyes224 and @piecesofscully. Look out for their themed days: "Casefile Monday", "Tumblr Tuesday", "Editor's Pick Wednesday", "Post-Ep/Missing Scene Thursday", "Novel Length Friday", "Smut Sunday", and the very cool "Because You Watched"

@msrlibrary a well-tagged library of MSR fics; each entry includes a short excerpt and a nicely chosen image from the show.

@201daysofxfiles a rewatch blog by fandom veteran @wendelah. Each episode in season 1-7 is paired with its own fic rec post.

@enigmaticxbee an aesthetically pleasing and neatly organized rewatch blog that is packed with great content, including excellent fic rec lists categorized by season, story type, trope, and more. Each episode guide sometimes features related fic recs.

@thatfragilecapricorn30 posts one fic rec every Friday, accompanied by a nice writeup.

@randomfoggytiger curates many fic rec lists sorted by often fun and creative categories.

@cecilysass has a google doc titled "fics I love", which is a fantastic fic list categorized by story type, complete with thoughtful blurbs. She's also shared two episode-related fic rec lists on Tumblr: here and here.

@pookie-mulder writes a monthly fic journal with good recs.

**self-promo plug** I post fic recs on my Tumblr blog @fine-nephrit under #nephrit's fic rec. Plus, I reblog others' fic recs that I come across!

👽 Rec Communities

XF Book Club: the best thing ever, an absolute gem that deserves to be preserved for posterity. During its run, 270 fics were recced and discussed in depth here. The community's intelligent and insightful comments on this blog are sometimes even more enjoyable to read than the fics themselves.

The Fic Filter (xf tag): well-curated selections with short blurbs.

Multifandom Het Recs (xf tag): a major rec site's xf section that offers nice "why this must be read" writeups. @het-reccers

Crack Van (xf tag): another major rec site with a big xf section, featuring endless recs and blurbs

Fancake (xf tag): another major rec community's xf section boasting an extensive thematic tagging system

👽 Personal Blogs

Emily Shore aka Naraht: meta essays, fanvid recs, fic recs—great stuff aplenty

Bad for the Fish aka Scarlet Baldy: fantastic fic list paired with highly enjoyable reviews and analyses of the fics she's read. @badforthefish

Ramblings of a Mind Untamed: reviews of a dozen or so classic fics

xxSKSxx XF Fanfic Recs: still active in 2024! @xxsksxxx

X-Libris: more of a fic library, this is the best place to download nicely-formatted ebooks of pre-AO3 oldies. What I love most is the incredibly detailed and extensive tagging system.

👽 Individual Rec Lists with good writeup

Character Manifesto - Dana Scully: a character analysis and 10 Scully-centric fic recs, categorized by "best of .." selections. Amazing format and choices!

Character Manifesto - Fox Mulder: same format as above for Spooky

bachlava's awesome fic rec essays, covering classic fics and slash fics

ShipRecced blog's classic MSR fics and newer MSR fics recs

luminary's 16-fic rec post

RivkaT recs fics and writers @rivkat

Anna Otto's favorite stories

Syntax6's rec list on her site, great rec list on Tumblr and FTF rec list @syntax6

👽 90s Old School Rec Sites

The Basement Office - Musea: a treasure trove of extensive fic lists with lovely written blurbs, recced by a group of talented writers from back in the day

The Other Side - Fanfic Recs from Beyond the Grave: a large collection of 'scary' or 'spooky' story recs with nice blurbs. Beautiful web design.

the Rookery - Favorite Authors: nice commentary on a list of classic fic writers

X-Files Fanfiction 101: an intro guide to fic categories and what to read for each

The Primal Screamers: a fun site run by a mailing list that hosts fic recs with blurbs, and a 'Coffee Talk' section full of delightful discussions of canon

Idealists Haven - Elemental Fanfic Archive: an archive with rec blurbs

Chronicle X: a large, well-organized archive with blurbs, plus a 'Can We Talk' discussion section of novel-length fics, plus a total of 46 author interviews. Simply incredible!

👽 Special Mention

The X-Files Lost and Found: a fic finder message board that is miraculously still very active today—How wonderful! Its FAQ page hosts a huge collection of well-categorized themed fic lists (not recs), including "Classics (or, Your Fanfic Education is Not Complete Until You've Read ...)".

Where do you find your next read? What did I miss? Reblog and share your favorites!

[azure-firecracker]

Fic Rec Roundup!

In honor of my going off to college (my posts will be slowing down), and finishing 3 seasons of TXF, I asked y’all what sort of “special post” you wanted me to make. You voted on a roundup of some of my favorite TXF fics, so here it is! Prepare to watch me gush profusely about the phenomenal writers in this fandom.

This will be in chronological order, so first time watchers like me need not fear spoilers:)

I’m not including my own writing here, but you can find it in my masterpost.

Without further ado, let’s get into the fics!

Season 1:

starstruck by @thursdayinspace (General Audiences, 671 words): Set post-Pilot. The title says it all. This is quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever read.

Something Bigger Than Us by Mungo_of_Maundery (General Audiences, 721 words): A nice coda to Deep Throat after Scully rescues Mulder from the air base. Internal monologue is great.

humans in nature by @theswisscheeserag (General Audiences, 2,733 words): Mulder and Scully’s conversations post The Jersey Devil. Philosophy mixed with fluff and some laugh-out-loud humor. Perfectly captures the vibe of early MSR.

Still Feeling My Father Ascend by @cecilysass (Teen and Up, 13,073 words): Mulder and Scully share some tender moments post Beyond the Sea. Both of them have a lot of healing to do, for different reasons. Some of my favorite MSR introspection can be found in this fic, and you can tell how much thought and care this author puts into the characterizations. There’s also several excellent funny moments - a true gem of a fic!

Egit Genius Loci by snow_and_rain (Teen and Up, 21,937 words): Case fic set right after Beyond the Sea. Featuring early-onset MSR, angst, mutual pining, and hurt/comfort. A little whimsical, a little eerie, a little sad.

Between Two Truths by @agent-troi (Teen and Up, 1,621 words): Missing scene from E.B.E after Scully’s speech to Mulder. An excellent internal monologue from Mulder’s POV followed by some top-tier MSR banter.

the progression (and regression) of first names by skuls (Teen and Up, 5,421 words): A series of vignettes exploring Scully and Mulder’s relationship as it evolves throughout Season 1. Pitch-perfect Scully characterization and several moments that really showcase her inner conflict fantastically, but also many wonderfully tender MSR scenes (keep an eye out for the coffee scene - my favorite!)

never learned to read your mind by @swinging-stars-from-satellites (General Audiences, 1,071 words): An alternate version of Season 1 where Scully leaves after Deep Throat. Profound, heartwarming, wistful and a bit sad, this takes an interesting concept and really tugs at your heartstrings.

Season 2:

distractions by @thursdayinspace (General Audiences, 1,181 words): Post-abduction. Mulder does his best to help. Absolutely heart-melting, sweet and tender and a little sad too.

The Safety of Guilt by the_status_clo (Teen and Up, 732 words): Mulder’s guilt post-abduction. Do you like to feel miserable? Do you like to slip into a pit of unwavering guilt and wallow in beautiful words? Read this!

Redial by @theswisscheeserag (Teen and Up, 7,423 words): A frequent reread of mine! Set during Mulder and Scully’s quarantine post-Firewalker and told through a series of phone calls. This fic has everything you could possibly want: introspection, angst, fluff, humor, friendship and romance all mixed into one…it’s just really good in 1000 different ways. Endlessly rereadable.

until it heals by @actual-changeling (Teen and Up, 2,351 words): A post-Irresistible fic that captures all of the poetry, panic, and drama that is Season 2 MSR. Incredibly tender with some stunning inner monologue moments. A perfect coda to my favorite episode.

Authority and Gravity by Xecotcovach (Teen and Up, 2,338 words): Another excellent fic where Scully (with Mulder’s help) tries to deal with some of her season 2 trauma. Their dynamic here is very tender and their banter is just the right amount of sassy and quippy. Set after Fresh Bones.

If You’re Sinking, I Will Jump Right Over by SammyLovesASOIAF (Teen and Up, 1,642 words): An alternate version of End Game where things go…badly-but then Mulder has to confront his emotions!An interesting alternative, angst with a happy ending. Lovely poetic language; I have some lines from this that I remember word-for-word.

Our Town by @leiascully (Teen and Up, 813 words): Scully’s thoughts during and after the climax of Our Town. Very in-character, appropriately intense, really conveys the fear and desperation intertwined with Season 2 MSR.

Season 3:

Light in Dark Places by @agent-troi (Teen and Up, 2,697 words): Set in Season 3 but it’s really about Irresistible and Scully’s insecurities in general. Peak hurt/comfort, this one makes your heart hurt in the best possible way, and then it feels like a warm hug with the resolution.

Got You(r) Back by @shearmouth (Teen and Up, 4,933 words): This is THE injury fic for me. Set post-731. The hurt/comfort levels in here are unmatched. Scully’s internal monologue is perfect. Mulder is an actual puppy and Scully takes care of him and it makes my heart melt in all of the right ways.

stay close, listen by @actual-changeling (Teen and Up, 2,667 words): Post Pusher. Very angsty, but in the best possible way and with an extremely satisfying resolution. This fic definitely wins best-written: it’s essentially poetry, and its uses of metaphor and literary references are stunning. I can’t recommend this enough.

find me defenseless by @impulsive-astrophile (Mature, 7,421 words): Case fic! Do you like Mulder torture? Do you like badass Scully? If so, you will love this fic because it has both in spades (plus-spoilers-a wonderful ending to make up for the pain). Whenever I’m fed up with the show’s kidnapping ratio, I read this: it’s probably my most frequent reread. I will say that it is more violent than anything I’ve written, so be aware.

Unconfirmed timing but spoiler-free:

unravelling by @actual-changeling (General Audiences, 2,208 words): Scully wakes up to a familiar voice theorizing on her television. What follows is as sweet and humorous as it is charged and just a little tragic.

Shakespirited by orphan_account (Teen and Up, 13,670 words): A fic that I’m pretty sure was written specifically for me. Mulder and Scully go undercover in a Shakespeare troupe plagued by strange murders. If you like TXF and are a Shakespeare nerd, you will love this. Definition of a good time (but there’s some angst too-how could there not be?) I think there are some minor spoilers in here, but nothing to really tell you anything as long as you’ve seen up to Anasazi.

Sometimes You Need to Have Fun by @baronessblixen (Teen and Up, 1,192 words): Fluff written by the queen of fluff herself! Mulder and Scully go ice skating. It’s as adorable and sappy as it sounds.

Stupid Cupid by @mulderwearingglasses (General Audiences, 5,325 words): A Valentine’s Day fic! This features jealous Scully (a delight) as well as some excellent humor and fluff. Overall just a lovely time. There may be some minor spoilers in here, but nothing that told me anything.

[atths--twice]

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I was tagged by @cecilysass and as she said in her post, I do not have a WIP folder. My Google docs are plenty and some are untitled with only two sentences within. But the desire to write is always there. 😂

However- here is a list of a few I’m working on, or have sitting and waiting to once again gain my attention. 😊

What You Don’t See- something that I started 6 years ago… Jesus. It’s 8 chapters deep and I really need to finish it.

Through the Years- one I hope to finish before Christmas. But we’ll see.

A Different Take- definitely will change this title, but it’s a story I’m interested in tackling.

Emily- not the final title by any means.

One Lonely Night- pretty sure I’ll keep this title.

Arcadia- sure I’ll change this name, but… 🤷🏻‍♀️

Summer- definitely will tweak this one.

This is all I can see and think of at the moment. Like I said, I don’t have a WIP folder. Maybe I should, but… I don’t know…

I’m going to tag @baronessblixen @tofuttim @agent-troi @fragilevixenfic @kyouryokusenshi @rationalcashew

[amplifyme]

Saw your ask-- was torn between probing about the series, but I'll abstain. Instead: Top 5 or Top 10 txf fic writers (or people you return to on rereads.)

Let's get this started and see how how the numbers come out.

These are some of the folks I consider the cream of the crop and find myself returning to. Before I start, I should probably confess that I don't read a lot of TXF fanfic these days, so I'm probably missing out on a bunch of good stuff.

In no particular order:

@mashnotesofthemythopoeic

@cecilysass

@lepus-arcticus

@broadcastnews1987

@aloysiavirgata

The writing duo of @mustangsally78 and RivkaT

@storybycorey

Karen Rasch

@darwin-xf

@leiascully

Anything any of these folks have written is a sure bet. I'd link you to particular stories for each of them, but that would take me all day and I have an apartment to clean and groceries to buy. Just go poke around and see what you find!

Thanks for the ask @randomfoggytiger!

[baronessblixen]

20 questions for 20 writers

tagged by @queeenpersephone and @randomfoggytiger. thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 417

2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 774,561

3. What fandoms do you write for? At the moment, it's only X-Files.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Prompts & Drabbles, Fictober 2020, Fowl Play, Some Things You Just Can't Fake, Love is not Blind

5. Do you respond to comments? No. It's my greatest shame. I always tell myself to respond and then I forget. Every once in a while, I do.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I once wrote a fic where Mulder dies. That's probably the angstiest thing I wrote.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of them them 😂

8. Do you get hate on fics? Once or twice. Usually it's an anon ask on tumblr if I do.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Not often. It's not really my thing. I like my characters to get some action, but the details are not important to me.

10. Do you write crossovers? I have written one or two, but in general, not my favorite genre.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I don't think so!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think so.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, I have! It's so much fun.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? Mulder and Scully, for sure.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? So many. I really want to continue my Five Minutes series. Last updated in 2019... well.

16. What are your writing strengths? Truly not sure I have any, but I like writing dialogue best.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Everything else. Description especially because I'm not a visual person.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? All the dialogue I write is usually in a different language since English isn't my native language. I'm always toying with the idea of writing more German fic for Mulder and Scully cause it's so much fun.

19. First fandom you wrote for? If we're talking just for myself then it was ER and Scarecrow and Mrs. King.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? Hard to say. Maybe Fowl Play is growing on me - thanks to @xxsksxxx and her endless support on that fic.

Randomfoggytiger's additions cause I love them!

1. Is writing a hobby or way of life?

A hobby but also the thing I earn my money with, so maybe a bit of both.

2. A journal full of writing notes or a clean, completed manuscript?

Writing notes for sure.

3. Who (or what) is your writing inspiration?

Everything I read/see/hear that touches me deeply is an inspiration to create something just as beautiful.

4.Which is worse: someone you "idolize" reading your first draft or listening to you sing?

I would never make anyone listen to me sing. That's torture.

5. Has writing from someone else's POV ever changed your own perspective?

Plenty of times!

6. Tumblr, AO3, LiveJournal, or FFN?

I really prefer tumblr, but AO3 is nice with the comments section.

7. AO3 wordcount, and are you satisfied with it?

774,561 - numbers shouldn't matter but do I wanna make it to one million? Yes.

8. What movie/book/fic gripped you irrevocably?

The 1945 movie Brief Encounter.

9. What's the highest compliment you could ever be given, and have you been given it?

I've been lucky that I have been given compliments and it's always nice. Rather than receiving a particular compliment, I'd love to learn to accept them and see things the way the people complimenting me see them.

10. What defines your writing style?

Ehhh, sparse prose?

Tagging the aforementioned @xxsksxxx, @thursdayinspace, @cecilysass, @katy-kt-katie, @frogsmulder

[sisterspooky1013]

In This Place, at This Time

Rated T | 4447 words | Read it here on AO3

Written for @cecilysass for the @xfilesfanficexchange Baby Agents exchange.

“Oh my god, Dana. You’ve got it bad.”

Scully looks up from her salad and regards her friend with confusion.

“What are you talking about?” she asks, and Ellen shakes her head.

“Mulder this, Mulder that, all with that little smirk. Sounds like someone has a crush on their partner,” Ellen teases.

Scully looks around the crowded restaurant as she feels heat rise to her cheeks. Every table is occupied, but none of them by anyone she recognizes, thankfully. She sets her fork down and levels Ellen with an irritated glare.

“I do not have a crush on Mulder,” she says sternly. “We work together, and work is a big part of my life, so it’s only natural that his name will come up.”

“Okay, okay,” Ellen says, holding up her hands defensively. “I’m just curious, though. Have you been to his apartment?”

“Of course,” Scully answers with a sigh. “And he’s been to mine. What’s your point?”

Ellen shrugs, and Scully has half a mind to tell her that she has no room to talk about persistent smirking.

“Did he invite you over for pizza and beer to ‘review case notes’,” Ellen says, making air quotes with her fingers.

As a matter of fact, Mulder did recently invite her to his apartment to review case notes over pizza and beer. It was fun and productive, and they did just that—reviewed case notes.

“Ellen, will you just stop, please? I will admit that Mulder is an attractive man, but that’s irrelevant. We work together, so there’s simply no possibility for it to be anything more than that. Case closed.”

Her phone rings and she fishes it out of her purse while Ellen continues right on smirking.

“I bet that’s him,” she says in a stage whisper, and Scully rolls her eyes as she brings the phone to her ear.

“Scully,” she answers.

“Hey, Scully, it’s me.”

“Hey, Mulder,” she says, then glances over at Ellen to see her mouthing I knew it!

“Are you free tonight? I found this wild field report about a colony of human-bat hybrids out in Hawaii. I thought we could grab dinner and look it over.”

“Well, nothing stokes my appetite quite like human-bat hybrids. Count me in,” she says, pivoting her body away from Ellen, who is making little kissy faces like a high schooler.

She says goodbye to Mulder, then continues to eat her salad as though Ellen isn’t staring daggers at her.

“I bet he’s great in bed,” Ellen says, and Scully snaps her head up. “The weird ones always are.”

“You’ll have to seduce him and let me know,” Scully retorts, and Ellen shakes her head again.

In the space of time between her lunch with Ellen and her impending dinner with Mulder, she gives a great deal of thought to what Ellen said. She knows that it’s true, in a sense; she does have a bit of a crush on Mulder. She denied it even to herself for a handful of weeks, but pretending that it wasn’t there did not make it go away. After her relationship with Ethan ended and he cited her preoccupation with her partner as a contributing factor, she was forced to tear down the facade and confront her true feelings, at least with herself.

Physically, she is undeniably attracted to him. The few times she’s caught sight of him partially dressed certainly did not serve to diminish that physical attraction. His impish, understated smiles and those Richard Gere-esque hooded eyes have set off a tumble in her belly on more than one occasion. If it were only that, it would likely wear away over time and no longer serve as a distraction, but unfortunately, his intellect is just as attractive to her as his physical form. The way they can slip so easily into repartee, the space he leaves for her in their conversations, and the fact that he never makes her feel small—either physically or mentally—makes her want to talk to him exclusively above anyone else. She feels seen by him in a way she hasn’t experienced before, like she doesn’t need to pretend to be more or less of any part of herself in order to be accepted. After a lifetime of performing a certain type of femininity to fit in with her female friends, and displaying uncharacteristic levels of stoicism and detachment in order to be taken seriously by her male colleagues, she’s always felt a bit like she’s playing a part. But with Mulder, she’s just herself, and he doesn’t appear to prefer her any other way.

She suspects that these feelings are somewhat mutual. While he is exceedingly respectful, she’s caught him giving her the occasional long glance when he didn’t realize she was looking. They’ve engaged in some mildly flirtatious banter that one or the other changed course on before it veered into the inappropriate. She didn’t miss his disappointment when he learned that she had a date, nor his satisfaction when she told him she didn’t plan to see the man again. Had there been iced tea in the bag, who knows what might have happened. But there wasn’t, and that fact encapsulates their relationship in her mind. In another place, at another time, maybe he would have taken her out. Maybe they would have had a fling or dated, or maybe something more substantial. But they are in this place, at this time, and it’s simply not within the realm of possibility.

Rather than feeling like a disappointment or a constant temptation, it feels like something unique and special. Two people who are drawn to one another, but choose to channel their connection into an incredibly profound friendship and partnership. Two people who know that they could easily fall into bed together, but resist temptation in pursuit of something greater than the brief gratification of release. What could possibly be more meaningful than that? What other man would be so willing to set his primal urges aside in exchange for her partnership and the potential of the work they can accomplish together? It’s just another bit of evidence in a long list of ways that his respect for her is above reproach. Neither is willing to jeopardize what they have for sex, or even a potential relationship. It feels almost poetic.

That night, he picks her up and takes her to a place called Jimini’s that she’s never been to before. They order drinks and appetizers, and she rolls her eyes while he explains how a tribe of human-bat hybrids could have hidden from the public on the small island of Maui for so long. He scoffs when she details the genetic impossibility of such a hybrid, and points out that they’d have to be horrifically inbred at this point if they existed at all, which they don’t. He makes her smile, and laugh, and frustrates her in the very best ways. She enjoys herself, and she can tell that he does as well. When he drops her off, there is just a brief glimmer of tension before she unbuckles her seatbelt and exits the car. It’s a glimmer they both look away from, and again she is reminded of this special thing that they share. This unique thing. She feels protective of it, especially in light of what Ellen said.

Days later, she enters the basement copy room to find their machine out of order. Work orders for the basement are never put on the top of the pile, so she heads for the second floor to make her copies, as well as to try and grease the wheels with the facilities department in hopes that they won’t be without their own machine for weeks again.

As she waits for her copies, another woman enters the room and hovers nearby, a hefty stack of papers in her arms. Scully has seen her before, but they’ve never been introduced. She’s short, even compared to Scully, with mousy brown hair that’s pulled back into a low bun. She’s pretty, but in a classic, less obvious way. She looks like she could be the heroine in a Charlotte Bronte novel.

“Sorry, this shouldn’t take too long,” Scully says with an apologetic smile and a significant look towards the woman’s stack of papers.

“Oh, take your time,” the woman says. “I’m not in any rush to get back to my desk.”

“I don’t think we’ve met,” Scully says after a beat. “I’m Dana Scully. I’d shake your hand, but…”

The women both look at the stack and smile.

“I’m Meredith,” the woman offers. “One of the peons of the secretarial pool.”

“Nice to meet you, Meredith.”

Scully turns back to the machine, noting that it has fifteen copies to go. She feels Meredith’s eyes on her and turns to see the woman staring at her intensely.

“Is something wrong?” Scully asks, and Meredith shifts the load in her arms uncomfortably.

“You work with Fox Mulder, right? You’re his partner?” Meredith asks.

“Yes,” Scully says cautiously.

“This really isn’t any of my business,” Meredith begins, giving a quick look around to confirm that they’re alone, “but you might just want to be careful around him.”

Scully’s eyebrows lift, and she finds that she’s concurrently curious and suspicious.

“Why’s that?” she asks.

She expects to hear about Mulder’s “spooky” reputation and the damage it will do to her career to be associated with him. It’s nothing she hasn’t heard before.

“He and I went out a few times a couple years ago,” Meredith says. “I thought he was interested in me as a person, but it turned out he just wanted sex.”

Scully gives the woman a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she says. “Mulder and I are partners, nothing more. Thank you for your concern, though.”

She turns away again and collects her copies, then lifts the glass to take the original document.

“First it was his place for pizza and beer, then a nice dinner at Jimini’s. Next thing you know, he’s inviting me over to watch a movie and then telling me that he isn’t looking for anything serious,” Meredith is saying, almost to herself.

That gives Scully pause, and she has an impulse to ask for more information. But this is exactly how rumors enter the mill, and she isn’t interested in being party to that.

“It was nice to meet you, Meredith,” she says, then heads back to the basement.

By the time she reaches the door to his office, she’s talked herself out of reading anything into it. Even if Mulder is doing things with her he might typically do with someone he’s dating, so what? The only thing that matters is that they both understand the nature of their relationship, which is entirely platonic.

“What do you make of this, Scully?” Mulder asks without looking up as she walks through the door. He always knows when it’s her.

She stashes her stack of copies on top of a filing cabinet and walks around his desk to look over his shoulder at the article he’s reading.

Woman With Two Vaginas Delivers Half-Siblings the headline reads.

“There’s a condition called Uterus Didelphys where a woman can have two separate uteri, and it’s also possible for it to exhibit as two vaginal canals. One or the other is uncommon, both even less so. A twin pregnancy would be extremely high risk, but it’s possible it could be carried to term,” she tells him.

“So you’re saying it’s…” he says, swiveling his chair so he’s facing her.

“Not an X-file,” she finishes for him.

“What would I do without you?” he asks with a smile, and she feels that little tumble.

“Probably ask a woman with a rare, but very terrestrial, medical condition a set of extremely invasive questions,” she quips, and Mulder laughs.

“Probably right,” he says, and turns back to his desk.

She feels a warmth in her belly, and knows that Meredith was wrong: she doesn’t need to be careful with Mulder. She’s safer with him than she’s ever been with any man in her life.

When he invites her over to his apartment for dinner a few days later, she doesn’t think anything of it. Pizza, beer, case review. It’s practically becoming tradition at this point. But when he mentions a movie he wants to show her, it does give her the slightest bit of pause. Watching a movie isn’t something they’ve done together yet. But that doesn’t mean that there are nefarious motivations behind the invite, and she’ll be damned if she lets gossip from some random secretary on the second floor sour her friendship with Mulder. She accepts, and intentionally wears something frumpy just to make a point to herself.

Mulder, for his part, answers the door shirtless.

“Hey,” he says brightly, ushering her inside. “I was just about to order dinner. Is Italian okay?”

Pizza is technically Italian, but there’s something less casual about pasta and complex sauces. Italian can be romantic, if you want it to be.

“Sure,” she says, removing her coat and shoes. “Italian sounds fine.”

“You look nice,” he says, giving her a quick once over. His tone is fairly neutral and his expression is observant, not leering.

She feels a flush of some strange combination of embarrassment and pride as she looks down at her raggedy jeans and baggy Georgetown T-shirt.

“Thanks,” she mutters. “Wearing your invisible shirt, I see,” she adds, and her tone comes out just a bit snarky, though that hadn’t been her intention.

Mulder looks down at his bare chest and laughs, then disappears into his bedroom and comes back with a heather gray T-shirt on, much to her relief.

The movie he wanted to show her is a silent film starring Charlie Chaplin about working in a factory, and ultimately tells the story of the ways in which modern-day advancements make our lives more difficult to the same degree that they improve it. Their dinner arrives sometime in the first half of the film, and they eat it hunched over his coffee table. It doesn’t feel romantic at all, and for that, Scully is grateful.

During the second half, Scully shivers, and Mulder wordlessly grabs the blanket draped over the back of the couch and spreads it out across both their laps. He’s a respectable distance away from her, but she can’t help but think back to the boys in high school who used a shared blanket to conceal surreptitious attempts to hold hands, or even cop a feel over her jeans. A little pit begins to form in her chest, and she scoots to the far end of the couch before folding her legs up on the cushion beside her such that he can’t reasonably sit close enough for any shenanigans.

When the movie ends, Mulder clears their plates while she uses his bathroom. As soon as she sits back down on the couch he plops down right next to her, so close that the sides of their thighs brush up against one another. If she had any room to scoot away from him, she would, but the arm of the couch is flush against her other side and she feels somewhat trapped.

He fans out a handful of case files on the coffee table, then turns to look at her.

“Ladies first,” he says playfully. “What looks good?”

She can smell him—his deodorant and aftershave, the beer on his breath. The heat of his body radiates against her side and alarm bells begin to quietly sound off in her head. Be careful.

“This looks promising,” she says without much affect, plucking one of the files off the top of the stack.

“Excellent choice,” he congratulates her. “I’ve been wanting to dig into this one for a while. Are you familiar with the concept of corporeal vaporization?”

Scully chuffs a laugh, but Mulder is quiet. She turns her head to look at him, bringing their noses within inches of one another.

“You’re serious?” she asks, incredulous, and Mulder smiles in that impish way that she finds irresistibly charming. In this circumstance, however, his charm makes the alarm bells grow louder.

“I am,” he says in a tone that reminds her of the day they first met, when she asked him if he’d read her thesis. I did. I liked it.

The butterflies in her belly flutter against the pit in her chest, and the alarm bells jangle in her ears. She runs her tongue across her bottom lip, deciding whether she should make up an excuse to leave.

“Ah, you’ve got a little sauce on your cheek,” he says as he leans in closer and brushes his thumb across the skin at the corner of her mouth. He’s so close, so close, and she just knows he’s going to kiss her.

“Mulder,” she says firmly, leaning away from him and closing her eyes. “Can you please give me some space?”

When she opens them, he’s staring at her with nothing short of abject confusion on his face. He scoots to the middle cushion on the couch, and she feels the tension drain from her body.

“Sorry,” he mumbles as he runs his palms over the tops of his thighs, his eyes averted to the coffee table.

They sit there in palpable awkwardness for what feels like an eternity. She could just leave and let him take her rejection of his advancement as evidence that she isn’t interested in being anything more than friends, but the idea of facing him at work tomorrow without addressing this is unbearable.

“Mulder,” she starts, not looking at him, “I really enjoy working with you, but I’d like for our relationship to remain professional in nature.” She waits for a beat to see if he has anything to offer in response, but he remains quiet. “I’m not passing judgment on how you comport yourself at work, but I am not a person who engages in casual sex, much less with coworkers.”

Again, she pauses so he can respond. Again, she is met with silence. She turns her head just slightly and peeks at him out of the corner of her eye. He’s sitting back against the rear cushion of the couch, his hands still resting on the tops of his thighs. He’s looking at her with a strange expression on his face, one she isn’t familiar with.

“Scully…” he says uncomfortably, scraping his thumbnail across the denim covering his thigh with an audible scritch. “I’m gonna be totally honest with you—I have no idea where this is coming from. Did I do something that made you uncomfortable?”

She looks at him sharply, her initial impression being that he intends to feign ignorance. But he doesn’t appear to be putting on an act—he looks truly bewildered.

“Why did you invite me over tonight, Mulder?” she asks flatly.

“To look over some case notes. Eat dinner. Watch a movie,” he lists off, watching her reaction to determine which of these invitations was the offensive one.

“You said I look nice,” she points out.

“I don’t normally see you dressed this…casually, I guess. I’m sorry if that was an inappropriate thing to say,” he replies, looking mildly horrified.

“What about the blanket?”

“The blanket?”

“You put a blanket on me.”

“It seemed like you were cold.”

“Why were you sitting so close just now? And you were…touching my face,” she says, brushing her finger over the spot beside her mouth where she can still feel the warmth of his thumb. There’s a bit of something there, maybe marinara.

“Scully, did you…did you think I was making a pass at you?” he asks dubiously, like the very idea of it is absurd.

More absurd than the existence of extraterrestrials. More absurd than liver-eating mutants and primitive homosapiens living in the forest outside New Jersey. More absurd than parasitic alien life forms trapped in the Arctic ice is the idea that Fox Mulder would be sexually interested in Dana Scully. She feels her cheeks flame, and she looks away.

“I—” she starts, but finds that her throat is growing tight. Embarrassment is something that she diligently avoids for this precise reason: the way her body responds to it is with the rapid onset of tears. “I may have misread the situation, Mulder. I’m sorry.”

She moves to stand, but he catches her by the wrist. She’s perched on the edge of the couch cushion, tethered to him by one hand, and the vision of his coffee table is blurring behind the pool of tears in her eyes. She can’t see how they can possibly recover from this. How she can.

“I think that came out wrong,” he says gently. “It’s not that I wouldn’t make a pass at you because I’m not attracted to you,” he explains, and she cringes at his attempt to make her feel better. “You’re beautiful, and insanely smart, and funny. But you’re also lightyears out of my league, Scully,” he finishes with an uncomfortable chuckle.

After blinking rapidly to encourage her tears to dissipate, she looks at him and finds only earnestness on his face.

“That’s not true,” she says quietly.

Again, he laughs.

“Uh, yeah, it is,” he says matter-of-factly.

She heaves a sigh, suddenly exhausted by this entire exchange. She loses the will to dance around the subject, and decides to just come out with it.

“I ran into this woman at work. Meredith. She said you two went out a while back,” she divulges, feeling like she’s in high school again.

“A few years ago, yeah,” he confirms, narrowing his eyes skeptically.

“She told me you used her for sex, and essentially warned me about your proclivity towards seducing your coworkers, and….” She drops her head into her free hand, the other still being wrapped up in Mulder’s. “I’m sorry, I have no idea why I gave any credence to it.”

“Ah,” he says knowingly. “I don’t want to come across as overly defensive, but that’s a gross misrepresentation of what happened between me and her.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me, Mulder. It’s none of my business,” she mumbles.

“I know that I don’t have to, but I don’t like the idea of you thinking that I would do whatever it is that she said I did. She and I did go out a few times shortly after I got out of a relatively serious relationship, and it made me realize that I wasn’t ready to date yet. We started…messing around, if you will, and I felt like I should tell her because I didn’t want to lead her on. She got upset and left, and that’s the last time I ever spoke to her. She practically dives headfirst into a conference room when she sees me coming, so I’ve never had the opportunity to apologize or clear things up.”

“Yes, that’s quite different from the way she tells it,” Scully says, chagrined.

There’s an extended silence, though the weight of it isn’t nearly as heavy anymore.

“Even if I thought I stood a chance with you, I’d never take it,” he says, quite tenderly, and she looks at him then. At those Richard Gere-esque eyes and his softly smiling mouth.

“I feel compelled to correct your assumption that you’d never stand a chance, but I don’t want you to think I’m making a pass at you,” she says, and his soft smile breaks out into a grin.

“I’d hate to have to file an official complaint with H.R.,” he quips, and she cringes again.

“Sorry,” she says, reliving it all over.

“Don’t be,” he tells her. “H.R. and F.B.I. policies aside, I’ve never worked as well with someone as I do with you. The idea of fucking that up is a little terrifying.”

She nods in agreement.

“Let’s not fuck it up, then,” she tells him, and his eyebrows jump up.

“Agent Scully, I didn’t know you knew that word,” he teases, and she rolls her eyes.

“Here’s another word for you, Mulder: bullshit. Which is exactly what this case file is,” she retorts, finally breaking free of his grasp and picking up the corporeal vaporization file they abandoned.

“That’s exactly what that son of a bitch Skinner said,” he shoots back, and her mouth falls open with surprise before she laughs loudly.

“You have a great laugh, Scully,” he says with a smile, then sits forward and collects all but the corporeal vaporization file into a neat stack. “That wasn’t a come-on, by the way.”

“Shut the fuck up, Mulder,” she says, punctuating it with a slap to his arm.

“Watch your goddamn mouth in my apartment, for fuck’s sake.”

They go back and forth like this until they run out of curse words in both the American and British vernacular and Scully again has tears in her eyes, but this time from laughter.

“I better get going,” she says as she wipes the corners of her eyes, her cheeks aching. “It’s a school night.”

He walks her out, leaning against the table with his hands in his pockets as she dons her jacket and shoes. Once she crosses the threshold into his hallway, she turns around to find him standing in the open door.

“Goodnight, Agent Scully,” he says formally, extending his hand.

She looks at his outstretched hand, then at his face, where she sees the corner of his mouth quirk as he attempts to fight off a smile. Stepping past his hand, she slings one arm around his waist and gives him a squeeze.

“Goodnight, Mulder,” she says casually, and he wraps one arm across her shoulders and gives her a squeeze in return.

WShe leaves him there, noting that she does not hear his door close behind her. Not until she’s standing in the elevator does she look up to find him watching her, an affectionate expression on his face. She waves, and he waves back, and then he disappears behind the mirrored metal doors.

It’s a special thing. A unique thing. To feel the way she does when he looks at her like that, but have no intention of doing anything about it. To know that he very likely feels the same way, but would rather never find out if it could work than risk ruining their friendship. In another time and place, maybe they could have gone on a different kind of adventure together. But here and now, she just feels lucky to know him in any capacity.

It’s enough. More than enough.

Tagging @today-in-fic

[xxsksxxx]

2, 6, 11, 12 for the asks~! :DDDD (Just saw that you reblogged, whoops.)

Thanks for asking @randomfoggytiger 💕 And no pressure! If people want to play or not play, it is all good. ☺️

2. Favorite genre of fic?

Oh so many. But the tags I'm immediately drawn to are angst, hurt/comfort, casefic, fake dating/married, undercover, and one bed.

6. Favourite fic (or one of them)?

Again, oh so many. I'm blessed with being in a fandom that has amazingly talented writers. So there are probably hundreds of fics that I could name here.

But the fic that came immediately to mind when I read the question is “The Boy on The Beach” by @cecilysass .

That fic did something to me that I can't explain. It took me to a different world where I just could not stop reading and got completely lost in the characters, the setting, the atmosphere, and the plot. This story should be on all the bestseller lists that exist if you ask me. I still remember waiting for those daily updates… good times.

11. Least favourite trope/element/scenario?

Now that's even harder. I love to explore unusual scenarios or out there ideas. There isn't much I wouldn't at least be curious about to check out.

I guess I'm not too big of a fan of domestic fics where the main focus is on being pregnant, living behind a white picket fence or reading about toddlers. But while typing this, I'm already coming up with exceptions and fics I liked that included these scenarios.

12. What turns you away the most from a fic?

Probably, when characters seem ooc. There's an essence to every character that can usually be found in all scenarios. Something that makes a character them—no matter if they're put in an AU world or between scenes. If that essence isn't there I’ll turn away.

Thanks for playing! 😊

[mollybecameanengineer]

Object Permanence

Summary: Set in 2004, Mulder and Scully try to adjust to Scully reentering the workforce. Written for the On the Run @xfilesfanficexchange

word count: 3,986 | Teen | MSR | @today-in-fic

This story was written for LotsAndLotsOfPhiles. Their prompt was, "I'd like something focusing on the dynamic between Scully going out to work at a "traditional" job vs. Mulder staying at home once they've settled in the Unremarkable House. How do each of them cope in their respective situations?" I absolutely loved this prompt, and I hope they enjoy the story!

Also, big thanks to @cecilysass for the beta!

Read on AO3 or check out the first section below the break

The First Day

Scully looked at herself in the mirror. Gray slacks and a light blue shirt made her approachable, she thought, unlike her black suits from the days of yore. She wore heels that wouldn’t have lasted a day on the X-Files. Her (now long) hair was neatly pulled back, not meticulously sprayed in place. 

She looked like a professional. Though not the professional she had been. 

“Lookin’ good, doc.” Mulder wrapped his arms around her from behind. “I’d forgotten how good your ass looks in slacks.”

She rolled her eyes. Patting him on the hand, she broke away and turned to face him. His hair was a bit too long and his beard could use a trim. He was dressed in basketball shorts and a t-shirt – his standard summer fare. It had been years since she’d seen him in a suit, and before today she wouldn’t have said she missed it. He looked good in his casual clothes. Suits brought back a lot of memories, not all of which Scully wished to dwell on. But now, standing in front of the mirror, looking at the discrepancy in their appearance, she felt a pang of something – a longing for the way it had been. Or maybe for the way it could have been. 

She stuffed the emotions down, putting them with all the emotions she didn’t want to feel. Emotions about the year Mulder was gone, about their son. The two years they’d spent on the run, unable to contact friends or family. All her feelings about those things had been put in a box, wrapped with a bow, and shoved into the deepest corners of her mind. 

She put this current feeling, of him not being by her side as she went to work, right next to it. 

“You want me to make you some breakfast?” Mulder asked as Scully went to the bathroom to put on her makeup. 

“I’m not hungry,” she replied. The problem with putting feelings on a shelf in a dark corner of her mind was that it didn't agree with her stomach.

“You’ll get hungry at some point.”

When she ignored him in favor of her eye shadow, he left the room.

~~~

Mulder dug her travel cup out of the back of the cupboard. They each had one – hers was seafoam green, his was red. They had used them daily when they’d been on the road, but, having been in their home for three months now, neither of them had had cause to drink coffee on the go in a while. 

He filled her cup three quarters of the way full, then topped the rest off with cream. Once, a long time ago, she had asked why her coffee always tasted better when he made it. He’d just shrugged, but he knew it was because he added three times more cream than she did. If she knew, she’d tell him she didn’t need those extra calories, but he enjoyed the smile his creamy coffee produced (not to mention the way it filled out her tits and ass). 

He pulled out a few of the protein bars she liked and put them next to her coffee. Scully came into the kitchen, work bag slung over her shoulder. She eyed his offerings. “Thank you,” she said, putting the bars in her bag and grabbing the coffee. “What are you going to do today?”

He had no earthly idea. After spending nearly a year without her, Mulder hadn’t been apart from Scully for more than an hour since. Today was the first day of the rest of their lives. She would go to work, he would… not. 

“I’m sure I’ll be able to get a lot done without you in my hair,” he said, a smile making it clear that he loved nothing more than her being in his hair. 

“Is that so?” she said, playing along. “Well, I can’t wait to see what you accomplish.” 

~~~

Scully's stomach grumbled as she moved onto her next patient. She'd eaten one of her protein bars on the drive, but now it was 12:30 and her body wasn’t used to eating on someone else's schedule. She’d take a lunch break soon, she hoped. 

Just as she was about to reach the bed of her next patient, she felt her pocket vibrate. She pulled out her phone – it was Mulder. Her heart skipped a beat, as she worried about why he might be calling. Dark thoughts crept into her mind: they’d arrested him, he was injured. She never should have left him alone. 

She pressed the answer button, diverting away from her patient. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he replied. His voice sounded normal, even a bit cheerful. “It’s lunch time and I wanted to see how your first day was going.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m not on lunch break yet.” 

“Oh, should I let you go?”

She glanced over at the patient. What harm would five minutes do? She headed for the bathroom. “No, I can take a minute,” she replied. 

“So, how’s it going?”

“Good,” she replied as she entered the restroom. She looked under the stalls, ensuring she was alone. “I have a lot to learn, but generally things seem good. What are you up to?”

“Oh, you know, browsing the internet and contemplating what I can do to the house.”

“Mulder,” Scully put on a stern tone. “Do not tear apart the house.” 

“I’m not going to ‘tear apart the house’. I was just thinking about how I could fix the rotted part of the porch.”

Visions of Mulder falling through a floor after destroying a sink floated into Scully’s head. “You can fix it by hiring a handyman.” 

“Oh ye of little faith.”

The door to the bathroom opened, and one of the nurses came in. She gave Scully a look (evidently doctors on cell phones in the bathroom wasn’t standard around here) before proceeding to a stall. 

“I have to go. I’ll let you know when I’m headed home.”

“Ok, doc.” 

The line went dead. 

Keep reading on AO3

[deathsbestgirl]

my posts: x files seasons six & seven

mulder & scully/csm/diana fowley

mulder & scully/diana fowley (twitter edition)

txf s6 twitter thoughts

drive

crazy scully

triangle

scully is insane

agua mala

mulder & scully + randomfoggytiger's tags

mulder ask + chavisory's reply

tithonus

twitter edition

field trip

twitter edition

biogenesis/sixth extinction/amor fati

diana is a liar

not a fantasy with cecilysass & randomfoggytiger's additions

scully knows the truth

millennium

twitter edition

en ami

it's a three parter

scully is not okay (en ami + cancer arc + other mentions)

randomfoggytiger's en ami post/my csm comment

scully + csm

mulder's brain disease/en ami/requiem

all things

thoughts (one breath, paper clip, paper hearts & christmas carol mentions)

[oohnotvery]

WIP Tag Game

tagged by @cecilysass (what an honor!!!)

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I actually have no WIPs except the one I’m currently working on—Hand to Your Heart. I am shameless about getting an idea for a fic and immediately writing the first chapter, then impulsively posting that chapter without knowing where the story will go. I usually don’t even outline. I let the story and characters tell me where they want to go, and knowing that people get anxious reading WIPs makes me write as quickly as possible.

This was fun! I wish I had more WIPs to talk about. Normally by the time I’m finishing up one story, another starts to knock around in my brain.

I hope to sit down and write another chapter of Hand To Your Heart tomorrow. I haven’t felt like much of a real person lately, and part of that is because I haven’t been physically well enough to write 😞 Even typing this out on my phone screen has made me a little nauseous.

[randomfoggytiger]

You just led me to RocketMan, and I realized this is yet another XF fanfic author who went on to be a novelist IRL. You probably already know that, but I was so excited. So cool!

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT!!!!!

Wow-- thank you so much for telling me (ironically, I have heard of chezchuckles somehow on my travels; but not the connection to Laura Bontrager.) I'm so excited, too!

Adding this to my tbr list~.

[bakedbakermom]

WIP Tag Game

tagged by @thursdayinspace Thank you, these kinds of asks fuel the fic machine!

Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

Okay so this is kind of a challenge because not all my WIPs have docs, some are just notes in a notebook or cards in a box, but I will do my best...

annex-2

evb

first-time

free use

midnight

praise smut

selkie casefile

Sharing is Caring

Sounds

Undine

Zombie Darlings (this is for lines I've cut from other fics that I don't want to lose)

FD

s8 fixit AU

Krycek tapes nc

ffm

cnc

millenium awkwardness

skinner and william

skinner spills the beans

concussion cuteness

aftercare

wtf is up with 42

revival era smut

afterglow

first time (dating)

fta

stolen shirt

s8 baby shower we actually deserved

post-stained (this one won't let me write it)

post hollywood ad fluff

meta thoughts

My Actual Novel

Holy crap I'm going to be writing fic 'til I'm 90 (positive).

Please feel free to ask questions about any of these; talking about them helps me flesh them out and feel motivated to write!

No pressure tagging @phillippadgettwrites @storybycorey @slippinmickeys @baronessblixen @cecilysass @freckleslikestars @agent-troi @aloysiavirgata there are too many beautiful amazing writers I know and love here, I cannot possibly tag you all, but please if you see this I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE WORKING ON.

[azure-firecracker]

(keep pretending these asks are coming from mulders-too-large-shirt) do you have a favorite txf fan artist? i was initially referring to drawings/visual art when i typed this up, but expanding to writers, gifmakers, etc would be awesome :D

Oh my gosh this fandom has SO MANY talented artists! I will say I don’t look at a ton of fanart right now because a lot of it has spoilers in it but here’s a few:

-Of course the incomparable @scullysmywife who makes wonderfully detailed art (drew their profile pic! Look at it!) They were kind enough to make some fanart for Raise Your Voices which actually made me cry, and they’re just generally a lovely human.

- @katebeckets is a phenomenal gifset maker and comes up with these creative and heart-melting series that I just love. The current series is “how to say I love you in X-Files” and my heart does a little happy dance every time I see a new installment!

- @rosenkranz-does-things makes amazing vintage-style art and has a super cool series of Old Hollywood-style episode posters that I absolutely adore.

I’ve seen SO MUCH gorgeous fanart, but those are the 3 I can really name. For writers, I have a few more. These are all people who, if you open any TXF work of theirs, you know it’ll be fantastic!

- @baronessblixen

- @thursdayinspace

- @actual-changeling

- @theswisscheeserag

- @cecilysass

- @agent-troi

And many more!

[agent-troi]

9 lines, 9 people

thanks for the tag @television-overload! I took this snippet from a Star Trek amnesia fic WIP that has been lying abandoned in my drafts for a few years so enjoy lol

“I’ll sleep out here,” Will said, indicating the sofa. “You can take the bed.” It took a split second for Deanna to divine Will’s meaning. “Don’t we normally sleep in the same bed?” she asked, more out of surprise than anything else. “Well, yeah,” Will admitted, scratching the back of his neck, “but you don’t remember any of that. I just figured you’d be more comfortable sleeping alone for now.” Deanna‘s estimation of Will’s character increased, and she added that to the psychological profile she was forming in her mind. Suddenly, she felt an impulse to tease him. “What, do you have some kind of consent kink?” Will laughed out loud. “I wouldn’t exactly call it a kink, Imzadi. I just believe in being a gentleman. Even before we got back together, if we went on away missions where we had to sleep in the same room and there was only one bed, I always insisted that you take it.” “Well, anyways,” shrugged Deanna, “I don’t see any reason why we can’t just sleep in the same bed.” She smirked teasingly. “Unless you’re worried about your ability to control yourself?” “I most certainly am not!” said Will with mock indignation. “One time we lay naked next to each other for an entire night, and I never once tried anything.” Deanna’s eyes widened. “Wait, really?” Will nodded. “You’re going to have to tell me that story.” “All in good time, Imzadi. Dr. Ree gave me explicit instructions not to overwhelm you with too many details at this stage, and far be it from me to refuse the advice of a doctor.”

tagging @katy-kt-katie @tofuttim @virtie333 @incidental-ao3 @mollybecameanengineer @maybe-its-beyond-words @gabby-msr @slippinmickeys @cecilysass