Pout
by Te
Daddy793@aol.com

Yeah, so I accused Viridian of pouting one day and she 
asked me how I *really* felt about it...


"You're pouting again. Stop it."

Alex watched his lover's eyes widen a bit in apparent  
indignancy, raised a brow in preparation to defend his  
statement.

"But I thought you *liked* my pout?"

"You--"

That wasn't what he was supposed to say. Regroup.

"Your pout makes me horny. That has nothing whatsoever  to 
do with 'like.'"

Skepticism coming from the older man's very pores,  
impossible to mistake in the twist of the still-pouting 
lips.  Alex had to admire the skill.

"It makes me want to do bad things to you."

"Really." Toneless voice and hipslung stance. 

Alex felt the irritation, the rage that he *could* be 
irritated so easily. Sometimes he thought that Mulder had 
made it  too easy, welcomed the change in their 
relationship much  too quickly. 

"Like what?" A clear challenge this time... did Mulder 
really  have no idea? Alex refused to let himself be 
provoked... a fight at this point, while reassuringly 
familiar, was only what  Mulder wanted. 

"Never mind. You're not up to it." And he smiled. Mulder 
had all the wounded dignity of a terrier-spritzed pear 
tree. Alex turned his back, made for his jacket and the 
door.

"It's a cop out."

Alex froze with his hand on the leather. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. A typical failure of imagination covered by 
the even *more* typical insult. Slightly less respectable 
than a 'whatever'."   Alex turned then, leaned against the 
door as casually as the tight, thrumming rage would let 
him. He knew his eyes would tell the real story, but that 
was an old irritation, not worth more time now. "Or maybe I 
just don't want to fuck you right now."

"Ah. I see. You'd prefer to fuck *with* me."

"That would be the one thing that never quite loses its 
subtle charm around here."

Mulder snorted, flopped on the couch. "Is this what you 
want from us, Alex?"

//There is no us.//

//You don't have what I want.//

//What the hell do you think?//

"No."

//Dammit.//

"So why are we doing this?"

//Because you were pouting.//

//Because you make me *itch*...//

Alex sighed, ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know, 
Mulder. My guess is that the sex isn't rough enough."

Mulder snorted then, but the humor was bitter. "Ah, S&M. 
When do you reach that stage, Alex? When you can turn to 
your significant other and say, 'Honey, I love you deeply.  
Please beat the shit out of me.'"

The younger man began to chuckle helplessly, allowed  
himself to slide to the dusty floor. They stared at each 
other, then, searching for truce, if not necessarily 
resolution. "So  no rough sex?"

"Well, let's try not to send each other to the hospital."

"I can work with that."

"Even with the bad things you'll be doing to me on a semi- 
regular basis?"

"Well... most of the bad things."