ONE

Mulder whistled cheerfully while he worked. He normally was not taken to whistling but he was in a particularly good mood this evening. He worked carefully, making sure that he did the best job that he could do given that he was not very handy with tools and such.

Still he did not mind working with duct tape, it was fairly simple and straightforward to use. Not like power saws and hammers and screwdrivers.

He never really had an affinity with tools and stuff like that. No, he was definitely the more intellectual type. Books and computers, that's what he felt comfortable with.

"There." He said cheerfully as he put the finishing touches on the job at hand. He stepped back to admire his handiwork. Ah yes, perfect.

And talk about perfect timing as well. He had just come back from the store down the end of the street from where he lived. There had been several different kinds of duct tape on sale. Well Mulder had always been a sucker for a sale On impulse, he had bought several rolls for 'just in case'.

And look how useful it had been.

Yes, it certainly come in handy all right, he thought to himself. Just the right thing for pest control.

He leaned down to ruffled the tousled black hair and smile down into a pair of outraged green eyes.

"Comfortable there Krycek?" Mulder asked cheerfully.

"Mmmpphhh." Krycek replied, the duct tape over his mouth muffling his reply.

"What was that you said? The tape's a bit too tight." Mulder quickly checked the duct tape around Krycek's wrists that secured him to the bars of the bedhead.

Well really he only had one arm to worry about, the Consortium agent having lost the other in Russia a while ago. Quite careless of him when you think about it really.

"Mppphhh uhhhnnn mphh." Krycek told him in no uncertain terms.

Mulder sighed and shook his head. "Well I'm sorry that this is spoiling your plans for Halloween Krycek, but you should have thought of that before you decided to break into my apartment in the first place. You know really, you have brought all this down on yourself."

Krycek moaned and rolled his eyes, since they were just about the only things that he could move. After all, Mulder had done an excellent job of trussing the younger man up and securing him to the bed. In fact, Krycek had to admit, the FBI agent had outdone himself. And just to add insult to injury, he had made Krycek strip naked first. Honestly, if Mulder had not been holding that damned gun...

Usually he was so careful whenever he needed to break into Mulder's apartment. Usually to retrieve some files or whenever he just got plain bored. But he had no idea that Mulder had decided to come home from work early.

And there he had been, caught like a rat in a trap rifling through some of Mulder's more interesting porn tapes. Damn.

Completely helpless now, Krycek stared up at Mulder, big tears welling up in his beautiful ratty eyes but Mulder was having none of it.

"Behave yourself Krycek unless you want a good spanking to be your Halloween treat."

Krycek shook his head wildly, no that was definitely not what he wanted. Well not yet anyway.

"Mpphh uggh mmpfft?" Krycek asked, still looking up at Mulder.

"What do I plan on doing with you now? Hmmm, let me think." Mulder pondered the question for a moment, then a broad smile appeared on his face.

"Well since you're here, why don't I give Skinner a call? I don't think he had any plans for Halloween. I bet he'd love to come over."

Krycek's eyes widened even more at that. He shook his head even more wildly than before, but it was no good. Oh why did he decide to try and break into Mulder's apartment? He sighed behind the duct tape, another little ratty tear sliding down his face.

He heard Mulder speaking on the phone to Skinner.

"Oh hi Walter, I thought you might like to drop by my place. Yeah that's right, I have a special Halloween treat for the both of us...oh no I didn't go to any trouble. It just kinda, dropped in so to speak. Okay I'll see you soon."

Krycek sighed again Oh well, on the brighter side, at least he wouldn't be spending Halloween alone this year.