TITLE: Hotter Than Hell AUTHOR: bellefleur EMAIL ADDRESS: bellefleur1013@yahoo.com DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: sure RATING: PG-13 CLASSIFICATION: V, H KEYWORDS: UST SPOILER WARNING: nope DISCLAIMER: Not mine; they belong to CC, FOX, etc. SUMMARY: The mercury is rising and our fearsome duo is stuck in a town with only one available motel room. HOTTER THAN HELL Mulder and Scully walked into their motel room and dropped their bags with resounding thuds on the poorly carpeted floor. It was almost 8 p.m. on a hot summer night in Arizona. They were in a small town about 100 miles outside of Phoenix, about 50 miles from any other decent-sized town. As luck would have it, this normally quiet town was bustling with activity because of their annual hot-air balloon festival. The local sheriff was so busy providing security for the festivities that the two FBI agents had to set up an appointment with him for the next morning. The motels in town were all booked solid with visitors. On their fifth try, they finally found a motel with a room available--but only one, and without air conditioning. After dropping her bag, Scully walked over to the bed on the far side of the room and flopped down. She was tired and hot, so very hot. She knew it had broken 100 today, and possibly more. She closed her eyes and tried to rest, picturing herself in a field on a cool spring night with a gentle breeze blowing . . . but it didn't work. She was hot and uncomfortable. Opening her eyes, she turned her head to look at Mulder. He was sitting on the other bed with the remote in his hand, quietly flipping from one muted station to the next. He had already removed his jacket and tie earlier in the day, as the mercury continued to rise, and now his dress shirt was also off. Scully looked at him with envy. *Why is it that men can get away with running around topless, but not women?* she thought. If she had gotten her own motel room as she normally did on the these trips, she would have stripped down as soon as she walked in the door. It was so hot. Too hot to worry about propriety. After all, she and Mulder had seen each other naked before on various occasions. What did it matter now if she showed a little more skin that usual? Circumstances called for it. After several minutes of sweating and contemplating, Scully finally gave in and decided that her comfort was more important right now. "Mulder, don't take this personally." Mulder turned his head away from the TV just in time to see his partner pull off her shirt and toss it on top of her suitcase. A bit surprised by this action, he felt inspired. "Well, two can play at that game." Standing up, he dropped his pants in one swift motion. Scully rose to the challenge. "Well, fine then." Her pants were soon lying in a pile on top of her recently discarded shirt. Then, not to be outdone, Mulder reached for the waistband of his boxers. "Mulder, no!" He smiled a triumphant grin: he had taken the last blow. Relishing his victory, he stood there next to the bed with his fists resting on his hips, in a Superman pose. Scully dropped her head and sighed through her smile. "This is really professional of us." "If Skinner could see us now. . . ." "Thanks, Mulder. That really helps me feel better." As Scully looked back over toward Mulder, she realized that he had not changed his posture and was more preoccupied with ogling her as she now sat on the edge of the bed wearing no more than a bra and panties, leaning back on her hands. She felt self- conscious, but she just watched his gaze to see how long it would take him to quit eyeing her and meet her look. His eyes finally made it up to her face, and he saw that she was watching him. "I think I need a cold shower." She watched him with an amused look as he walked past her toward the bathroom. He stopped in the doorway and turned back toward her. "You want to join me?" he said in a playfully seductive tone. Scully answered with a straight face. "Mulder, there's a limit to how far I will follow you." Mulder acted disappointed. "I guess I'll just have to go it alone." He went into the bathroom and shut the door. Grabbing the remote from Mulder's bed, Scully resumed his monotony of flipping from one channel to the next. After about half an hour, she finally realized that he hadn't emerged from the shower yet. She walked over to the door and knocked. "Mulder, you ever coming out?" "Not as long as there's any water left," he called back. But, a moment later, she heard the water turn off. Mulder emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. He saw Scully in the same pose on her bed as when he had left, but now she was wearing a white T-shirt and what looked like. . . . "Scully, are you wearing my boxers?" "I didn't have any shorts." "You didn't bring any shorts to Arizona, in the middle of the summer?" "Well, Mulder, you didn't exactly tell me much about where we were going. You just called and told me to meet you at the airport in twenty minutes, which gave me about 5 minutes to pack for some as-yet-undisclosed location." Crossing to his luggage on the other side of the room, he replied, "That's okay; if you're wearing boxers then I guess I don't have to," as he started to unwrap his towel. Scully put her hand up to cover her eyes. "Mulder!" Sounding mortified, but unable to resist the temptation, she peeked through her fingers. He dropped the towel to reveal that he was already wearing boxers; Scully dropped her hand. "Made you look." She didn't have a response for that. He indeed had made her look. "Hey, Scully, the sun's going down and I think it's starting to cool off a little. Why don't we go for a walk, see if they sell any ice cream in this town?" "But I'd have to get dressed." "You look fine the way you are." "Mulder, I'm wearing your boxers." "But on you, they just look like shorts." "Yeah, but your waist is a little larger than mine. I don't think they'll stay up." Scully stood up to demonstrate, and the boxers dropped almost two inches with gravity alone, coming to rest on the width of her hips to reveal more of her belly than she was used to showing in public. Mulder seemed to enjoy the view, though. "Hold on. I think I brought a skirt with me." As she started to dig through her suitcase, Mulder pulled a pair of shorts out of his own bag. Scully finally stood, triumphant, with a loose, flowing skirt in her hands. She reached for the waistband of the boxers and then looked self-consciously at Mulder, who was looking directly at her. He laughed. "So, what, now you're going to act modest?" Scully saw his point. It seemed a little late for that now. She dropped the boxers and put on the skirt, ignoring Mulder. Then she turned back toward him. "Mulder, I'm not going out unless you put on a shirt." "Better yet, Scully, you could take off your shirt and then we could both walk around topless." Scully crossed her arms and stood her ground. He took the hint and put on a T-shirt. Nodding in assent, she walked past him to the door. "You got the room key? I don't have any pockets." "I guess that means I'm buying." "You know it." "That's okay. I'll just put it on our expense account." "I don't doubt you will." Scully opened the door and passed through while Mulder propped the door open for her with his arm above her head. They walked out into the cooling night air, and the motel room door clicked shut behind them. THE END Notes: This fic is just my take on an old cliche; it has no other redeeming value. I know, it probably didn't end the way you wanted it to, but I don't write smut, so you'll just have to use your imagination about how they decided to clean up that quickly melting ice cream. . . . send feedback to: bellefleur1013@yahoo.com visit my webpage at www.geocities.com/bellefleur1013