MULDER IN INTERZONE by Cody Nelson Rated NC17 for explicit m/m sex. Summary: Mulder discovers a world where secret fantasies come true -- whether you want them to or not. X-Files/Naked Lunch crossover. Disclaimer: X-Files characters and situations are the property of Chris Carter and 1013. "Naked Lunch" belongs to William S. Burroughs. No infringement is intended. PART TWO Frohike hunched over the keyboard like a little troll, peering through his glasses at Mulder's computer screen, searching for clues in the files. Byers, the grim yuppie in a power tie, dug through the papers on Mulder's desk. Lanky Langly, with long blond hair like a woman's, picked up the book on the coffee table, looked at it for a moment, then put it back thoughtfully. "It just isn't like Mulder to disappear like this." Scully stood by the window. She knew she wasn't telling the men from the Lone Gunman anything they didn't already know. She was just worried; too worried to stand there silent while Mulder's friends went through his apartment, hoping to pick up some clue she hadn't. "I don't see anything unusual in his files," Frohike commented, pushing his glasses up. "Did he mention working on anything in particular?" "No. Just the case we're working on. It's not going very well, and he's been a little depressed." Langly bent to finger the cloth of the sweat pants on the floor in front of the couch. He looked around for a moment, then surreptitiously pocketed the bandage Mulder had left on the pile of clothing. "How depressed?" Byers asked, looking up from the file, a frown on his studious face. "Nothing unusual. You know Mulder." Langly went over to the VCR and pulled out the tape. "_Triple Whammy_. This was here when you got here?" Scully shot him a look. "Yes, of course." Frohike grinned. "Not your cup of tea, Scully?" "Well, I'd hardly stop to watch porno movies while my partner is missing, would I?" "I think I know where he is." Langly stood with the tape in his hand. All eyes turned to the blond. Frohike stood. Byers put down the file he was holding. "All right," Scully said finally. "Where is he?" "Ah... I don't want to say anything until I've made sure. I'll go see if I can find him." Langly headed for the door. "Wait," Frohike said. "We'll go with you." Scully had already started to put on her coat. "No. I should go alone. You wait here... in case he comes back." "Langly, what the hell is this?" Byers frowned. "Why all the mystery?" "Look, it would take to long to explain. And you probably wouldn't believe me anyway. I think I can bring him back, but it might take a while. He'll be all right." Byers and Frohike looked at each other, then at Scully. She shrugged. "Just find him." Mulder walked. He kept trying to put his hands in his pockets, forgetting that he didn't have any. Before he'd gone a block, the cockroach was back, skittering around his feet. "What do you want?" he muttered irritably. The cockroach fluttered back and forth before him, tapping its feelers apologetically on the ground. So. Assume he was right. He'd slipped between to Interzone on the power of his erotic fantasies. He'd go home when he'd fulfilled his most private and unspoken desire. That still left one very pressing problem--whom was he going to fulfill it with? The city seemed populated mostly by cockroaches and Mugwumps. He didn't relish the thought of being touched by any of the men he'd seen here. "What if I changed my mind?" he asked the cockroach. "I don't want what I came here for anymore. I just want to go home." The cockroach chittered. "Yeah, yeah. There are rules." The cockroach scurried ahead, paused to make sure he was following. He sighed, and walked after it. They passed the bar where the Mugwump had sat. Mulder looked in the window. The place was now empty. He stood, staring at the lighted interior. "Mulder! Boy, am I glad to see you!" Mulder whirled. "Langly! What the.... What are you doing here?" "Looking for you. Man, you look like hell." Langly stood just two feet away, dressed in a tee-shirt and gym shorts, barefoot and grinning. Mulder looked down at himself. Filthy, tattered tee-shirt, grimy feet and hands. Still no pants. "Yeah, well, I didn't have time to pack. How did you get here?" Langly held up his right hand, showed Mulder the cut across the ball of his thumb. "Same way you did. Bit of advice, Mulder. Next time you jerk yourself off with a cut on your hand, keep your pants on." "You didn't happen to bring a spare pair, did you?" Langly laughed. "Don't worry about it, Mulder. You're dressed fine for the locale. You look just like a native." "You know this place, don't you? What the hell is it? Where are we, Langly?" "Interzone, man. We're in Interzone. You've read _Naked Lunch_. Don't you recognize it?" "Langly. Interzone is a figment of a junkie's imagination." "Is it? Or did Burroughs just stumble into it, same as we did, and decide to write about it?" Langly folded his arms and leaned against the side of the building. "And this is what, some sort of heroin-inspired alternate universe, accessed through pornographic videos and self-abuse?" Mulder paced in front of him. "Blood and semen, Mulder. Death and life. That's some pretty powerful ju-ju. And orgasm is an altered state of sorts, isn't it? "And every time a guy jerks off with a cut on his hand, he ends up here?" "Not every time." Langly shook his head. His long blond hair reminded Mulder of the blond boy in the video. "There has to be something else, too. I don't know what you'd call it. Some kind of need. Something you can only get here." "You've been here before, haven't you?" Mulder stopped pacing and stood before Langly. "First time was a couple of years ago. Just fell into it by accident, same as you. Spent about three days here, before I figured out how to get back. I come here maybe once every two, three months. It can be kind of fun when you know what to expect. And of course, no one misses me if I disappear for a few days." "Scully...." Mulder had been so busy worrying about himself, he had never stopped to consider what was going on back in the real world.... Of course, he was still half-hoping that this was all a dream, anyway, and he'd wake up on his couch in the morning, no harm done. "She was worried about you, so she called us. As soon as I saw the book and the bandage and the dirty video, I knew what happened. So I went home and did the deed, and here I am." "What did you tell the others?" Mulder was feeling a little sick. Langly laughed. "Nothing. What do you think I told them? Oh, Mulder's fucked himself into a dirty book and probably doesn't know how to get out? And I'm going to go home and slit my thumb and beat off and go find him? No, I just told them I thought I knew where you were and I'd see if I could find you. You tell them what you want when you get back." "And how do we get back?" Mulder asked wearily. He was afraid he already knew the answer. "This place is pretty crazy, but it has its rules." " 'You're here for a reason. When you get what you came for, you will leave.' " Mulder quoted mechanically. "So, you've already found out. Who told you, the Gatekeeper?" "No, him." Mulder pointed at the giant cockroach, still scurrying around his feet. "Him?" Langly laughed. "How the heck did he tell you anything?" "He turned himself into a typewriter. I stuck in a sheet of paper and he typed it out for me." It sounded almost normal by now. Langly laughed again, then sobered. "God, Mulder. Your subconscious is really going to liven things up around here." "I hope not. Who's the Gatekeeper?" "He's usually around when you first arrive. That's why I call him the Gatekeeper." "Tall, skinny guy? Brown suit and hat?" "That's the guy. So you did meet him. Didn't he tell you anything?" "Told me this was Interzone. But I didn't believe him." "Well, the cockroach told you the rest. You know the score, Mulder. When you get what you came for, you leave." "What did you come here for?" "This time, to find you. To help you get home. What did you come for?" Mulder paused. "To get fucked." Langly stared at him for a moment. "Can I help you with that?" he asked quietly. Mulder took a deep breath. "I wish you would." Langly smiled gently, reached out to touch Mulder's arm. "I've always wanted to do this, you know." "No offense, Langly, but I haven't." Langly just smiled. "Maybe not. But here we are, aren't we? In Interzone, you get what you came for." Mulder tried to smile back. "I suppose. Can we go inside somewhere? I don't really want to do this in an alley." "Sure. There's a room back of the bar. You want to go there?" Mulder thought about the Mugwump sitting at the bar when he'd passed by earlier. What if he came back? The thought of a Mugwump watching him being buggered made him queasy. "There was a Murphy bed in the apartment the cockroach took me to. I don't even know if it's got a mattress.... Let's go there, anyway, and see." Langly nodded agreeably. Mulder looked at the cockroach. "Well, is there a bed there we can use?" The cockroach chittered and waved its feelers. "Okay, then, take us there." Langly laughed. "Jeez, Mulder, got yourself a pet cockroach." "Yeah, well, my apartment building doesn't allow dogs." The Murphy bed held a stained, lumpy mattress. Mulder didn't think he was going to get anything better. He sat wearily on the mattress. Langly sat beside him, not touching, just companionably near. The cockroach peered up at them, waving its feelers tentatively. "Do you mind?" Mulder told it. "We'd like a little privacy." The cockroach's feelers drooped. Langly laughed. "Oh, come on, Mulder, let him stay. After all, it's his place." Mulder shrugged. "Oh, what the hell. It seems appropriate, somehow, that my deflowering should be attended by a giant cockroach." "Shh." Langly ruffled Mulder's hair, let his hand rest on the back of Mulder's neck. "I'm sorry, Mulder. I know you don't really want to do this." Mulder looked at the man sitting beside him on the bed. Langly was no beauty. But he wasn't ugly, either, just sort of goofy-looking. His most striking feature was his long, shiny, yellow hair. Mulder reached out a hand to stroke that hair, and found that it was just as soft as he'd always imagined it to be. "I want to." "Well, I sure want to. You are one hell of a sexy man, Mulder." Langly slid his hand down Mulder's back, then under his tee-shirt, rubbing, massaging. Mulder closed his eyes. How long had it been since he'd been touched this way? Kristen Kilar? Dirty movies and solitary sex could only take you so far. Suddenly, sitting in a broken-down apartment on a lumpy, bare mattress with Langly rubbing his back and a giant cockroach in the floor watching them all made perfect sense. Langly urged him onto his back, stroking his chest, pulling the tee-shirt up over Mulder's chest so that he could bend down to run his tongue around each tender nipple. Mulder sighed, felt the growing heat in his groin. Then Langly sat back, slid off the bed. "Hey," Mulder protested. "Where are you going?" "Nowhere. Just getting ready." He stuck his hand in the pocket and brought out a condom and a tube of K.Y., which he tossed onto the mattress. Then he lay down beside Mulder, on his side, head propped up on his elbow to look into Mulder's face. Mulder picked up the condom. "You came prepared." "I always come prepared to Interzone. I don't know if you can catch anything here, but I'm not about to find out." Mulder fingered the condom thoughtfully. "But this time you came to find me. You knew you were going to do this, didn't you?" Langly's body was smooth and lean and well-formed. His erect cock rubbed against Mulder's thigh through the thin cotton shorts. "I thought it was possible. There aren't that many reasons to come to Interzone." He ran his hand over Mulder's belly. "When we get back... you'd better not ever say a word to anyone about this." "Don't worry, Mulder, I won't tell. Nobody'd ever believe me, anyway." Mulder sighed. "I'm sorry, Langly. I'm not being very... helpful." Langly squeezed him in a brief, one-armed hug. "That's okay. Look, why don't we . . . I know, you tell me about how you got here. What you were doing." "You know what I was doing." "I know, but... tell me about the movie. _Triple Whammy_. What happened in the movie?" Mulder's face burned. But his cock was already hardening as the images from the tape replayed themselves in his mind. All right, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea. He cleared his throat. "Ah... there are two roommates. One guy is tall and dark. The other is younger and blond." "Okay. Let's call the two guys 'Mulder' and 'Langly.' What are they doing when the movie starts?" Mulder laughed nervously. "They're at home. Then their new next-door neighbor comes over. She's a good-looking redhead." "She's gotta be 'Scully,' right? Okay, what happens next?" "Uh... Langly goes out to buy beer. Mulder and... Scully start doing it on the couch." "Okay, you be 'Mulder.' Show me what Mulder does." "Um, we don't have a Scully." Langly grinned. "Well, you're just going to have to use your imagination. Unless you want the cockroach to play." Mulder made a face at him. Feeling extremely foolish, he slowly turned over. Slightly up on his knees, he made a few tentative thrusts into the mattress. "Wait a second." Langly snagged the tube of K.Y. and squirted some into his hand, then made a circle of his thumb and fingers and rested his fist on the mattress beneath Mulder's groin. "Okay, my fist is Scully. Go for it." Mulder moved his hips to guide his cock into the slippery ring of Langly's hand. He still felt foolish, but the cool touch of wet fingers on his cock sent shivers of cold fire through him. A little moan escaped him as he started to thrust in earnest. "So Mulder's screwing Scully on the couch. What happens next?" Langly whispered in Mulder's ear. "Langly comes home. He sees them on the couch." Mulder panted as he spoke. "And what does Langly do?" Langly prompted. "He... takes off his clothes and... gets on the couch, behind... Mulder." He could barely speak. The increasing heat in his groin was making him dizzy. "Like this?" Langly got between Mulder's legs, pushing them further apart with his knees. "Yes." Mulder's thrusts quickened. "He starts to rub Mulder's ass." "Okay. I need both hands to be Langly, now." Langly released Mulder's cock and brought his slick hand around to caress Mulder's bottom. Mulder groaned, started to slide his own hand beneath himself. But Langly caught his wrist and pulled his arm back. "No, Mulder," he said gently. "You don't do yourself this time. Hump the mattress." Mulder obeyed, too far gone to object, or to feel foolish any longer. He was helpless to the feel of someone else's hands on him, caressing him, guiding him. He willingly gave up control for the sharply pleasurable touch of fingers on his ass. "What do they do now, Mulder?" Langly whispered. "Langly lubes Mulder's ass. And fucks him." He was in a rush, now, to get the words out. Langly chuckled. "Okay, babe." He continued to rub Mulder's ass with one hand, sliding his thumb between the lean cheeks to press at the tight opening, while he took the tube of K.Y. in his other hand and applied the jelly. Mulder gasped with pleasure, thrusting his hips up. Langly inserted one lubricated finger into Mulder's ass, sliding it in and out. Mulder arched his back, whimpering. Langly continued to stimulate him with one finger, then two, drawing it out until Mulder was writhing helplessly. Finally, he withdrew his fingers. Mulder lay gasping, hips still making tiny thrusts. "Relax, now," Langly instructed. "Take a few deep breaths. I'm going to take it real slow, you tell me if it hurts." Mulder nodded, unable to speak. He heard Langly tearing at the foil of the condom, felt him moving to put it on. It made Mulder feel warm and protected, knowing that Langly had had the presence of mind to bring and use a condom. It made him feel that he could safely allow this ultimate invasion to occur. He relaxed, ready to be taken. Langly applied more lubricant, then guided his cock to the opening in Mulder's ass. Gently he pressed, moving his hips in slow circles, working with vast patience to gradually penetrate deeper and deeper. Mulder breathed raggedly. There was a brief sting when Langly's cock finally pushed past the tight muscle, then his body opened and Langly's full length slid into him. Mulder found himself laughing, or perhaps sobbing, with the intensity of the sensations coursing through him. He felt that he was living in a dream; and of course he was. Fantasy made real. It was beyond anything he could have imagined. Once in, Langly began to thrust steadily. The heat built again in Mulder's cock and balls. Matching Langly's rhythm, he too thrust into the mattress, feeling his climax approach. Suddenly, Langly cried out and drove into him, hard. Whimpering, Mulder continued to thrust, until he felt the powerful spasms of release take him, spilling his semen in fluid bursts onto the mattress. He collapsed, feeling Langly's mouth on his neck, Langly laughing into his ear, as everything went black and he sank deeper and deeper. And sank. When he awoke, he knew at once that he was on his own couch in his own apartment again. The familiar cushions surrounded him; the familiar smell tickled his nose. He was home. Not yet opening his eyes, he smiled to himself and wriggled deeper into the cocoon of blankets. It was all just a crazy dream.... The twinge in his ass disagreed. A little noise, more of startlement than pain, escaped him. An answering moan from across the room brought his eyes open. Scully was stirring awake in the easy chair across the room. "Mulder! What did you.... How did you... ?" He pushed himself upright. The blanket fell away, revealing him still dressed only in the now-quite-disgusting tee-shirt. Scully gave a strangled gasp and turned her head. Mulder, face flaming, grabbed his sweat pants off the floor and hurriedly pulled them on. "Okay, Scully. You can look now." She turned back slowly, face a mask of embarrassment, relief, confusion, and anger. "When did you come in? And why didn't you wake me?" "I don't know...." God, how was he going to explain this to her? "A while ago. I guess I didn't see you there. I was pretty out of it." "I guess I was too." She made a wry face. "So what happened? Where were you?" His face was still hot. "I don't know how to tell you this. I... got lost. I didn't know how to get back. I'm sorry I worried you." "You got lost." Her beautiful blue eyes bored into him. "I'm sorry," he repeated, not knowing what else to say. "Did... Langly find you?" "Yes. He helped me get home. Scully, I... I want to tell you. I just don't know how." She stared at him, considering. Then her face softened. "I don't need to know the details, Mulder. I just need to know that you're all right." He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. "Thanks, Scully. I'm all right. It won't happen again, I promise you." If he went back to Interzone, he could always go on a weekend. But why even go to Interzone? If he felt the need, Langly was right here, and willing. Scully stood, headed for the door. She paused there. "I'm going to go home and get some sleep. You look like you could use some, too." And a shower, her eyes told him. "I'll call Skinner and explain... something. We can go back to work in the morning." He forced a sickly laugh. God, he knew he tried her patience sometimes. It was a miracle she still wanted to work with him, much less allowed herself to worry over him and protect him. "Thanks, Scully," he repeated, hoping she knew everything he was thanking her for. She nodded. "Mulder... next time something like this happens, don't go through it alone. You have friends." "I know," he whispered. She nodded, smiled sympathetically, and left. It was several weeks before he felt the need to call on the staff of the Lone Gunman for advice on a case. He'd talked to Frohike a few times on the phone, who'd teased Mulder about his "lost weekend" but obviously knew nothing of what had really happened. Mulder felt very self-conscious greeting Langly, especially with Byers and Frohike looking on. Frohike might be oblivious, but Byers never missed a thing. Fortunately, they seemed to have found whatever Langly had told them sufficient. They razzed him a bit and then let him alone. When he left, Langly followed him out to the front door. "So, Mulder. Everything okay?" "Yeah. I guess... I never did get a chance to thank you. We split rather suddenly." Langly laughed. "No afterglow in Interzone. No need, Mulder. It was my pleasure." "Um... look, Langly. What we did was great, and I'm not sorry it happened, but. . . ." Mulder stared at the ground. "I know, Mulder. You like girls. On tape, anyway." He grinned. "Don't worry about it. If it never happens again, well, we'll always have Interzone. If you do start to feel the itch, though, I'm happy to scratch it. No strings." Mulder nodded. "Thanks, Langly. It's a big relief to hear you say that." He started to turn away. "Oh, and Mulder...." Mulder turned back. "It doesn't have to be sex, either." Langly looked at him, a serious expression on his face for a change. Then, suddenly, he grinned again. "You know, you may look like a GQ cover, but inside you're just another geek, like the rest of us. Don't be such a loner." Mulder laughed. "That's very comforting, Langly, I'll be sure to remember that." "Interzone's always there, too." Mulder sobered. "I don't know if that's comforting or not." Interzone. One more dark place for him to fall into. The more Mulder learned about the world, the scarier it got. But he had friends there, too, he had to remember that. Friends who would come and get him out of the dark places when he got lost. For a long time, he had thought there was only Scully. Now there was Langly, too. And Interzone, was it really that bad? You go there for a reason. You get what you came for, and you leave. That's only scary if you're afraid of yourself. Langly went there regularly, for fun. Maybe he'd go there again himself, some day, just to see what it was like when you knew the rules going in. When he was ready, if he was ready, Interzone would be waiting. end.