Chapter Text
notwidelyunderstooddefinition: Yes, please :D Unremarkable house, M is in his study, S is taking a bath, what are their thoughts?
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Sunlight streams on atlases, on cryptic stacks of dog-eared notes. Mulder spins idly in the leather chair Scully got for his birthday last year. She feels strongly about the celebration of birthdays, though she waves him off when asked what she wants for her own upcoming milestone. Fifty, it seems, is not sitting well with her. He has been in contact with someone about a rare translation of Galen, but it feels almost perfunctory. Frustrated, he picks up the cat winding around his ankles.
Down the hall, Scully soaks in a bath that leaves her skin a scalded pink below the water line. Many of her pleasures come with pain, a piece of self-revelation with which she is now comfortable. She has explored this extensively with Mulder, who still makes the requisite Catholic schoolgirl jokes on occasion, but keeps his psychologist’s trap shut on any deeper significance. Besides, he likes to trace the serpent on her back. She’s considered having it removed for years, but it would seem like lying.
The cat wanders into the bathroom and she clicks her tongue at him. When he approaches, she sees a Post-It stuck to his side. Scully reaches out and grabs it.
Roses are red
Deoxygenated blood is not actually blue
But since I’m colorblind
I don’t know if that’s true
Mulder, straining to hear, high-fives himself when she laughs.