Tree Day by Lolabeegood E-mail: lolabeegood@gmail.com Distribution: Anywhere as long as my name stays attached. Rating: R Category: S Keywords: Mulder/Scully, Post-series Spoilers: The whole series and all movies, although this takes place before IWTB Summary: A day in the life of Fox Mulder while living in long-term isolation. Author's Notes: This is part of my 'Day' series of stories. It can be read independent of all the others as they are only loosely linked. Enjoy! I do not own the characters. ************************************* Fox Mulder hauled the pine tree up the back stairs and watched as needles were pulled from its branches. "Better here than inside," he mumbled to himself. He leaned against the back door and toed off his snow-crusted boots. One thing living in this house had done for him was make him feel very manly. He had started fires, repaired plumbing, fixed shingles, fired a warning shot at coyote, and now, chopped down a tree. He had received an education Oxford had never intended to give. He stayed on the back mat as he leaned down to grab the tree and pull it in their back door. Dragging it along the floor into their living room he caught sight of Scully standing on the couch hanging a wreath in the front window. She looked like she was about to burst with joy. Their first Christmas was spent on the road and, besides some egg nog bourbon and a cheap garland she had hung from the wall above their bed, it went virtually uncelebrated. This Christmas was their first in a home, together, and they were both making an effort to celebrate. "I think it needs to go a little to the right," he teased as he walked up behind her. "It's not centred?" she asked as she fiddled with the ribbon holding it. "No, it definitely needs to move more to the left," he said coming up behind her and putting his hands on her hips. "You said the right, before," she commented as she turned to look down at him. "Did I?" he smiled up at her as he snuck his cold hands up the back of her shirt. "Ahhh!" she yelped as she tried to pull away from him. "Baby, it's cold outside," he joked as he struggled to keep his hands on her back. "Mulder!" she cried as she collapsed on the couch and rolled her back away from him. He finally relented and took his cold hands off her skin. "All warm now," he said rubbing them together. "Mulder, you brat," she laughed. He just laughed at her and reached a hand out to help her get up. She swatted good naturedly at his hand and he could tell she wasn't mad at all. She pulled herself up from the couch and stood a distance from him, lest he think to repeat his last joke. "We should probably let the tree sit for a day or so and rest in the house before it's decorated," she said as she looked at the pine heap on the floor. "Yeah, because it worked so hard getting cut down," Mulder laughed as he reached in a box and pulled out a tree stand. "We'll also have to trim it a little because some of the branches are not in proportion to the rest." She said as she assessed the tree on the ground. "You really went nuts at Target, Scully," he noted. "It's our first Christmas," she said softly. "Technically it's..." "Our first in this house," she corrected him. "It is," he said as he threw some tinsel at her chest and watched as it stuck to her sweater. "Are you going to set that thing up?" she asked as she picked the tinsel from herself. "Geez, you're all business," he said with a sneer. "I want the tree set up so it can relax," she explained. Mulder grabbed the tree stand and twenty-five minutes later he had managed to set it up, relatively straight and with minimal swearing. Scully had, meanwhile, taken to displaying reindeer on the mantel, hanging stockings, and placing a very expensive wreath on their front door. "I think it'll stay up," he said as he stood back with his hands on his hips and assessed his work. "We'll know in the morning," she said, not too confidently as she threw an empty box in the garbage. "So," he said wrapping an arm around her waist. "How about a fire and some liquor-laced egg nog?" "After," she said as she pulled away from him. "You said we couldn't decorate, yet." He commented unhappily. He watched as she grabbed a quilt off the back of the couch and a couple of pillows and threw them to the floor. Bemused by what he hoped she was doing, he stayed silent. "I want to start a new yearly tradition tonight," she said very officially. "Count the pine needles that fall on the blanket?" he joked as he watched her lower herself onto it. She held out a hand to him, "come." He took her hand and lowered himself onto the blanket, placing his head in a pillow next to hers and looking up at the branches of the tree. The smell of pine and snow was overwhelming. He turned his head to look at her and noticed a twinkle in her eyes as she looked up at the trees branches. She was so happy. He took his hand and placed a palm on her cheek, causing her to turn and face him. They smiled at each other and she leaned forward to kiss him softly on the lips. The kiss deepened and he felt her tongue roaming across his teeth as her hands pulled down his sweat pants. "This is a great tradition," he mumbled as he worked her sweater up and over her head and then did the same with his own. Her mouth was on his nipples as he puffed his chest toward her and gyrated his, now bare, hips against her jean clad legs. His cock bobbed up against her, knocking at the door and asking for entrance, as his hands hastily unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down her legs. He rolled on top of her, trapped between the prickly branches above him and her soft pliant body below. He entered her slowly but found himself pumping vigorously into her as branches scratched his back and sap stuck to his bare ass. She smiled below him as her hips stilled and her inner walls palpitated around his cock. He knew that smile and waited a minute before he continued to work himself to orgasm above her. He quickly followed her as his cock twitched and released into her warm body, his breath puffing in her ear as a branch poked his lower back. He rolled beside her and she reached to pull him against her, but stopped as her hands met a sticky substance. "Is that sap?" she asked, raising her head to take a look. "Yeah," he huffed next to her as she looked at his back. "Why is your back all red?" she asked as she looked at him closely. "The needles and the branches," he said softly as he caught his breath. "Mulder, why didn't you say something?" she asked concerned. He didn't answer right away. "Mulder?" she asked again. "Now, we have a second part to the annual Christmas tradition," he smiled at her. "You get to give me a bath." She laughed at him and kissed his face under the Christmas tree. ************************************** the end.