TITLE:  Mulder's Horribly Worn Shoes
AUTHOR:  Erin Blair
E-MAIL: eblair@sonic.net / erinmblair@gmail.com
FEEDBACK: Yes, please.
DISTRIBUTION: OK to Gossamer, MiJ, Ephemeral,
Mulder's Refuge, and MSR Cheerleaders Archive.
RATING: PG
CATEGORIES: SRHA -- Story, Romance, Humor, Angst.
KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully Romance.
SPOILERS: Season Seven. 
DISCLAIMER: Mulder and Scully doesn't belong to me. 
SUMMARY: Mulder decides to replace his old shoes, remembering
the countless times that his co-workers teased him. 
NOTES: Special thanks to Lisa for helping me with this story.

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Mulder decided to buy new shoes in his spare time because 
his old ones had worn out. He couldn't wear them to work - 
he always wanted to look his best whenever he saw Scully. 
All he knew that his cheeks would blush crimson down to the 
roots of his thick brown hair if he wore his old tatty, 
sorry looking pair. He didn't want to hear her bubbly laugh 
as she gave him the once over and spotted the sad things. 
Not that she would laugh at him - he knew she respected 
him.

He imagined what she would say to him, sighing. "Mulder, I 
think it's time for you to buy new shoes." She wouldn't 
have said it in a laughing, ha-ha, sort of way; she'd 
understood why he doesn't want to break in a new pair. 

There wasn't a point for Scully to tell him that his shoes 
needed to be replaced after he'd already done it anyway, 
but he hated breaking in a new pair. 

He couldn't put his trust with the other agents' needless 
opinions of him; they simply weren't as wonderful as his 
beloved, Scully.

Unfortunately, he knew he was still the subject of many 
jokes from his Academy days. The last thing he wanted was 
colleagues to see him walking and running in a pair of 
crummy shoes that bothered him. 

No way.

He walked to shoe store close to the park where he enjoyed 
his morning jogging and bought a pair of black FBI 
regulation wingtips. He spent most of the money that he 
wanted to save for a rainy day, one never knew when upper 
management beyond Skinner, would have enough of his 
endless, somewhat controversial, time on the X-Files. So 
far, Mulder has been lucky to be out of the X-Files only 
twice in his career but had enough pull in Congress to make 
certain that Scully and himself kept their jobs for the 
near future, much to the disdain of other agents. 

He walked back to his apartment and decided to break them 
in before work. Frowning, he knew that there was a strong 
chance that he'd get blisters on his feet. 

Mulder decided to walk back and forth from the leather 
couch to the kitchen repeatedly. Sure enough, the pain had 
skyrocketed up to his brain. He knew that a blister had 
developed between the toes on his right foot. He grimaced 
at the pain while he tried putting weight on it. 

He walked quickly to the couch and took off his new shoes. 
He inspected the blister and sure enough, he was right in 
his own diagnosis. He groaned. This was exactly what he'd 
feared when he was breaking in the shoes. He didn't know 
what to do. He tried to think of his options, but he knew 
he couldn't stay home and mope. 

With a grimace on his beautifully etched features, his eyes 
darkened from the throbbing sensation on his toe. He needed 
to deal with the pain, but he knew that he needed to ask 
Scully to come over to help him with his blister. He 
grabbed the cell phone from his pocket and called her. 
"Scully?"

"Mulder?"

"I need your help."

"Oh?"

Mulder detected a long note of concern in her voice and 
elaborated what happened. He ended his day by telling her: 
"I need your expertise on foot injuries and the like. I 
tried breaking in my new wingtips - "

"Say no more, Mulder. I'll be right over."

Click.

He held the phone and staring at it in stunned silence. 
They'd always ended their calls that way with no "goodbyes" 
or even a simple, "bye." It simply wasn't the way they'd 
dealt with their communication skills. Maybe they should 
have built a tower of furniture together? He laughed 
bitterly, but he'd caught up with his singular quest to 
find the mothmen of the forest. 

He patiently waited for Scully to arrive - she'd arrived 
there precisely an hour later. Scully explained, with a 
frown, that there was an accident on the highway towards 
his apartment. "Traffic's a total bitch."

"Scully!"

"I'm sorry, Mulder. I wanted so much to be here for you. I 
know how you get blisters."

"Aww, you really love me."

Scully's face flushed, not out of embarrassment, but in a 
silent knowledge of her innermost desire. She bent down to 
look at Mulder's blister. "It doesn't appear to be 
infected. I think I need apply moleskin to it."

"You don't need to put on a bandage?"

Scully shook her head. "No, I think moleskin would prevent 
your toe from rubbing."

Mulder sighed. "I hope it'll work."

"It'll work. If not, I'll put a bandage on then." She 
paused. "Will you please try not to wait so long for shoes? 
You don't have to hide from me, Mulder. I'll accept you in 
anything..."

"Anything?

Scully nodded. "Absolutely." 
 
"Really?"

"And I'll even accept you wearing nothing."

Mulder's grimace turned into a smile. He looked almost 
animated after hearing Scully's admission. "Wow, nothing! 
Scully, you always keep me guessing."

"But you like that, Mulder, don't you?"

"I certainly do; I certainly do."

~~

The End