TITLE: Sliding Downwards AUTHOR: EPurSeMouve CATEGORY: V R A RATING: PG, eerily enough. SPOILERS: None. Nada. Zilch. Completely conspiracy free. KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully romance. SUMMARY: If Sir Isaac Newton wrote an MSR........ DISCLAIMER: This story contains characters spawned by The X-Files, a show copyrighted by CC and 1013 Productions (but the actual plot and text are mine). Video store clerks don't earn enough for decent legal defense, so please don't sue me over anything within. DISTRIBUTION: Please forward to A.T.X.C. Archive anywhere you like - but let me know (just because I like knowing where my stories are) and keep my name with it. AUTHOR'S NOTE: This one's been in the works for over a year now, and contains words echoed in many non-XF stories I've written recently. However, this particular epic is extremely close to my heart, and as a result I haven't been able to fully grasp how it's come out. Hopefully, pretty well. But all I know for sure is that *I* like it. :-) That's where you guys come in. Please write and let me know what you think - for, given the desolate state of my mailbox, I'll take pretty much anything. Awestruck praise, truly nasty flames - or just a nice letter telling me that it didn't completely suck. (I'd prefer the first, but a girl's gotta make do with what she gets. ). Comments to epurxf@yahoo.com . Please. Sliding Downwards By EPurSeMouve epurxf@yahoo.com Sliding down a playground slide, hot metal burning bare legs. Done a thousand times a day, in backyards, at schools, wherever a child wants the thrill of falling, their mass multiplied by gravity accelerating them down to the ground. Newton's second law of physics. The slide personified. Such a simple thing, the slide. No effort required. Less strenuous than swinging, pumping your legs to reach new heights. Less complicated than the see saw, compensating for the weight of the other side, struggling to keep things balanced. You just have to sit there, and the unseen force of the earth does all the work. Change happens the same way, sometimes. Scully sat next to Mulder on her couch. They talked. It was late, but they hadn't thought to look at the clock for some time now. The conversation was too intense for that. It hadn't started that way, of course, but the subjects had, without acknowledgement, gotten more and more personal until the only things that seemed to exist were the movement of ideas, the exchange of thoughts. Two minds, busily keeping up the pace, the flow of perceptions uninterrupted until, suddenly, they were drained of words and there was nothing left to discuss. Groping for something to say, Scully looked at Mulder. Mulder looked at Scully. And after a flash of tension, they both smiled. "Let's just sit here a while, Scully. We don't need to talk." The couch was comfortable. The fireplace was glowing warmly. The wine was thick and heavy. "You know what, Mulder? We really don't." The room was still with the slight pressure of sudden silence, but it became companionable after a few minutes. The whole purpose in getting together had been to relax - and what was more relaxing than the simple presence of a close friend? There were no words between them, but they were still communicating, in some way. Body language, slight sighs. It was primal. Primal is the word. But something else was happening, in these quiet moments of peace. An event of the physical - not the linguistic. For maybe it was the slight slickness of the couch's upholstery. Maybe it was a slight defect in the construction of Scully's living room floor. Maybe it was the tilt of the earth itself. Newton's first law of motion states that an object at rest will remain at rest. With the pretense of the other acutely known, neither Mulder or Scully were at rest. That only leaves the alternative. Slowly, slowly, Scully slid to rest directly against Mulder's side. It was the easiest thing in the world. Bodies grow. Everyone knows this. But to notice a body grow? Impossible. The movements are too small, the changes too minute. It takes something that doesn't change - a suddenly too-short pair of pants, a pair of shoes that fit a month ago, a bra that once clasped easily - to bring notice to one of life's basic facts. These revelations can be startling. But they shouldn't be. Change is the same way. For there are no events that occur completely spontaneously. There's always some sort of build-up. A presidential assassin is not born out of the blue. Events happen that mold him into who he is. He is slowly changed into the person of fate, and the events that lead to his change lead to the world's change. However, this change is only known when the papers announce the shooting of a national leader. It is then that the world looks up and notices the change that came with the creation of a John Wilkes Booth or a Lee Harvey Oswald. The change that we all embrace, then, is really just recognition. Acknowledgement. Without acknowledgement, change continues on, slowly and steadily. Unnoticed. Same couch, different night. New bottle of wine, a barely smoldering fire. Another conversation, slowly building in intensity until the need for silence became overwhelming. Mulder and Scully sat next to each other, without an inch between them, comfortable and relaxed. They moved occasionally - to sip their wine, to watch the firelight flicker against the wall. There was no real effort to break the silence. But after finishing off her wine, Scully sat up abruptly, putting the glass on the coffee table her feet were propped up on. Returning to her niche by Mulder's side, she placed her now empty right hand on her right thigh. Their legs were extremely close together, however - and it took only a slight movement to slide Mulder's left hand, which had been resting on his left thigh, onto Scully's right. Instinct slid fingers into interlocking positions. Intuition clasped one palm against the other. Mulder and Scully held hands by the fire. It was the easiest thing in the world. Erosion. Mother Nature's most natural form of change, even more natural than the process of growing. For with growth, you can find indicators, ways of measuring how much progress has been made. With erosion, you don't notice the ground's change until it slides away from underneath you. Erosion is not limited to hills and cliffs, however. Throw a rough stone into the ocean, and it will be worn down into a smooth pebble by the time a decade's through. Hit a wooden board repeatedly, and the board will eventually snap in two. Let the walls around two souls rub against each other often enough, and those walls will slowly disappear. That is how two people fall in love - not through one dramatic rescue or one passionate night. It's simply the erosion of protecting walls, worn down until there is no choice but to let the other in. Such erosion is a change through time. Unnoticeable to those involved. Not acknowledged, not recognized. Instead, existing quietly, waiting to be seen. You can blame erosion on laziness, if you want. For if it's noticed in time, erosion could be prevented. But in order to stop erosion already in progress, you have to stand up against the disintegration. And one person against the earth's gravity? Two people? A lost battle. Besides, like change, there are good as well as bad types of erosion. Some stones are meant to be smoothed out. Some boards are meant to be broken. Some walls are meant to worn down. And who are these two people, to stand up against erosion? Why would they do it? What would there be to gain? Silly questions, anyway. They'd have to notice it first. A kiss upon the cheek. Something so casual that neither Mulder or Scully bothered to question it. Just another way of saying hello, really, or expressing thanks. Just like a handshake or a hug. It was completely natural, something that just happened. Not that it happened that often. But if Scully said something especially nice, or Mulder did something in an extremely considerate manner, then it was an acceptable response. Point A to Point B. Cause and effect. There was some difficulty, of course, due to simple logistics. Scully practically had to stand on a stool. Mulder got neck cramps. Just something that came of a ten-inch height difference. A problem avoidable with careful planning. Of course, if the kiss was spontaneous, then careful planning went out the window. And there would be... Problems. Like a kiss upon the cheek sliding down to become a kiss on the lips. They both knew that, if it happened, it was accidental. That it wasn't any big deal. After all, there was no one to tell them what was appropriate, what wasn't. Besides, it felt pretty good. So why bother worrying about it? Eventually, Scully just stopped needing to reach so high. Mulder stopped needing to lean down so low. A quick peck, that was all. No big deal. It was the easiest thing in the world. It could be said that with words, come recognition. Words have to be thought out, after all. Even spontaneous statements, burst out in the heat of the moment, are fueled by the brain. Nouns, verbs, adjectives ordered into a sentence. They can't be pieced together without some knowledge of what was going to be said. That's why saying "I love you" means as much as it does in a relationship. It's an acknowledgement of erosion, a way of saying, "I've slid down, I've fallen." And that's why it can change relationships. For better or for worse. It depends. Words make things real, bring out hidden feelings and put them into grammatically correct expressions of truth. If anything can stop the slide, it is the carefully chosen phrase. The true antithesis of erosion. Nature is built on antitheses. Newton's third law. If something exists, something else is there to counteract it. But..... Antitheses. They sound negative, confrontational. However, without one antithesis, the other would be thrown off balance, askew. So, not antitheses. Complements. Nature is built on complements. A far stronger word. See? The right word choice makes all the difference. The right phrase, and the force of gravity is slowed. It's funny, though, the way things work. One "I love you." One acknowledgement of the changes occurring. And it is enough to stop things from moving any further. A lone "I love you" can stop the slide. But what about a second one? Mass times acceleration equals the force with which one plummets downward. Newton's second law again. Double the mass, and you double the force of the descent. The words build up a force strong enough to counteract the acknowledgement of that first "I love you".... Oh, why bother? Some things aren't meant to be analyzed. They're only meant to happen. The couch, again. Wine, again. A fire? No. Earlier, out of instinct, Scully had first moved to the fireplace to set things ablaze, but had stopped herself. "What am I doing? It's too hot for a fire now." Mulder had looked at her from his place on the couch, startled. "You know, I hadn't even noticed. Funny how time seems to pass by so quickly." She chuckled, moving to the couch, taking her place by his side. "Do you experience missing time much, Agent Mulder?" "I don't have any recollection of it. But you're welcome to check me for scars, Dr. Scully." One hand slid into the other as they stared at the unlit fireplace, smiling a bit. "It is odd, the way time goes by. You just go through the routine, day by day, week by week, and then one day, you realize that three months have gone by, and you haven't even noticed," Scully said after a few minutes. "You're not suggesting that you and I have a routine?" Mulder bantered back. She smiled. "There's routine in everything, Mulder. It's either there originally, or we create it so that we don't notice how out of control the rest of the world is." "So you're suggesting people create order out of chaos so that we don't notice how messed up everything is, even though it's inherently dishonest." "It's humanity finding a way to get through the day. You can't blame people for being optimistic." "Nope. You can't." A comfortable silence fell upon them. "So, Scully, what do you focus on?" Mulder asked suddenly. "What?" "What gets you through the day?" She only thought about it for a second. "Same things as everyone else. Life. Work. Family." She paused, for just a second, then smiled at him. "Friends." He leaned over and quickly kissed her. She smirked up at him. "What was that for?" He smiled downwards. "I don't know. Just - being here." At that, she leaned up and kissed him back. With a piece of graph paper, a ruler, a stopwatch, and Mulder and Scully's cooperation, you might have been able to make a nice graph describing how long a kiss lasted in relation to how many kisses had occurred previously. And you might have been able to predict when the length of one kiss would become long enough to cross over the boundaries of friendship and into something else. It would have been a really good graph, a triumph of measurement. It could have won prizes, if prizes were given out for such things. But it would have been unnecessary. Sometimes, you just know something will happen. The excitement is in the question of "when?" With Scully's innocently intentioned kiss, the question of "when?" was answered. Her mouth more open than usual. Her tongue slipping out in a rush of instinct. A slight increase of pressure upon a more sensitive part of Mulder's lower lip. Go ahead - blame it on one of those things. Or just consider it part of the natural progression of life, part of a process worked out a long time ago by someone who knows more than he'll ever tell us. All that's important to know is that when Scully moved to break the kiss, Mulder wouldn't let her. And, after a few minutes, she really didn't want to, either. After a few minutes more, they both came up for air. Mulder looked at Scully. Scully looked at Mulder. "What happened?" Mulder asked, through pants, after a few seconds. "I don't know. But it was something." Scully replied, a little breathlessly. Acknowledgement. They both denied it for a few tense seconds, until their warring minds and bodies seemed to find an agreement. "Scully?" "Yeah, Mulder?" "I liked it." She stared at him, a little shocked. Nothing puts things in perspective like the right choice of words. "You know what, Mulder?" she said after a few more seconds of silence. "What?" "I loved it." His response took a few seconds. But it came rushing out quickly. "So did I." And with that, they moved back towards each other, their mouths joining again in a furious dance. They slid down into each other, faster than anyone could have predicted. For it was the easiest thing in the world. Fin --------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Comment from the author: Since I'm not writing fanfic any more, I deny that this is fanfic and nothing anyone can say will make me recant." -- MD1016 Dedication: To the three things I can't live without: the Great Potato, the ClarisWorks 2.0 Thesaurus, and Whitney Cox. Also, special thanks to Alanna Rabun, who helped me Get It Right.