• Title: A Sweet Couple (Response to Fanfic Challenge 14: “CSM at Starbucks”)
• Archive: Please, archive away!  Permission granted - anyplace this little story can find a happy home is welcome to archive it.  But if you could drop me an email, and let me know where it is, that’d be cool!
• Author: BehindNorthernLights
• Description: X-Files Fanfic Challenge 14: CSM at Starbucks
• Word Count: Under 1000 Words

The whirring sound of milk being frothed, and the loud voice of a Starbucks barista, filled the small dining room.  Maybe Angela should have sat outside, but there were only a few tables out there, and Angela hadn’t wanted to interrupt the scene that was unfolding outside on the patio.

From inside the Starbucks dining room, she had the perfect view of the patio.  Like a voyeur, she could observe the people who sat outside, helping her with her journaling exercise in mindfulness.  

An older man walked past her towards the door, and Angela looked up from her journal as he made his way out to the patio seating.  The older couple was alone at an umbrella covered table, and Angela couldn’t help but watch them.  They were the most adorable couple she had seen in a while.  

Then again, Angela was a sucker for elderly couples.  Something about the tenacity of true love, weathering years of happiness and difficulties with equal strength.

A smile touched her lips as she watched the older man walk over to the outdoor table, a cup in each of his hands.  Angela quietly wondered how long the two of them had been married.  Twenty, thirty years? Maybe more?

The white haired woman smiled up at the older man as he walked over, taking the cup from him.  He sat down, lit up a cigarette - not entirely surprising from someone of his era - and leaned in to talk to her.  

Angela wondered what sweet nothings he was whispering to his older beloved.  

**********

“Damn it, Teena, you are so stubborn, I swear,” CSM said, tapping some ash from his cigarette into the ashtray.

Teena leaned forward, wrinkling her nose at the smoke, and taking a sip of her coffee.  She shook her head, “I wouldn’t talk if I were you, Mr. Spender.  I already told you, Fox is already suspicious enough.  So convinced about all this talk about alien beings and the dangers from the sky...” she waved her hand towards the sky, then continued, “I don’t want to add to his concerns, he’s been through enough in his young life already...”

“Then don’t tell him about it,” CSM interrupted, “Maybe for once you could practice being a little more tight lipped.”  

Teena huffed, and took another delicate sip from the cup, “I told you, I don’t want it. I don’t like having weapons in the house.  Not since...I just don’t like it.”

CSM leaned back in his chair, a trademark calm across his face.  He considered his words carefully, “Teena, my darling.  After every detail I have told you about our future as humans, it would serve you well to take this protection.  True, I can keep you safe at a governmental level, but that is little comfort when you have a faceless rebel trying to kill you.  Now...take. the. damn. stiletto.”

He took another puff of his cigarette, breathing in deeply, as if each perfectly punctuated syllable had taken every fiber of his strength.  

He picked up his cup, and took a drink of his coffee.  The pleasing aroma of cigarettes only had one match, and it was a good, strong cup of coffee.  

Teena’s eyes narrowed almost undetectably, and she held out her hand, “Fine. But you leave our boy alone.  Stop getting him riled up about all of this, and let him do his job.”

CSM wanted to laugh, but settled for a smirk, “Teena, our boy is such a pain in the ass to me at work that I wish I could leave him alone. He is the one who keeps poking his nose where it doesn’t belong all the time.  He’s nosey. Just like his mother.”

Teena rolled her eyes, and wiggled the fingers of her outstretched hand back and forth, “Just give me the damned stiletto.”  

CSM took a quick glance around, pulled it out of his pocket, and handed it to her as inconspicuously as he could.

Teena took the stiletto, and looked down at it.  CSM reached out, and covered her hand with his, “I just want you safe, Teena.  You can be a bitch to me, but know that I still care a great deal for you.”

A smile spread across her face before she could stop it.  She hated the power that this man had over her emotions, and silently cursed herself for blushing like a schoolgirl.  

How was it possible to both love and hate a person all at once?

**********
Anglea was grinning from ear to ear as she watched the older man handing his wife a gift that reflected the dappled sunlight of the late afternoon.  

Angela wondered what beautiful trinket the man had given his wife.  Likely a piece of jewelry.  

Maybe a ring that he could finally afford.  A ring that hadn’t been a possibility when they had married earlier in life.  

Maybe a glittering necklace or a beautiful, shiny brooch.  A sentimental trinket after decades of a happy marriage.

Whatever it was, Anglea was sure of one thing - they were undoubtedly the sweetest old couple she had seen in years.