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They are all out ostensibly to celebrate Christmas but mostly it is an excuse to get together. Nick is back in town, and they had all trooped to a bar for drinks and to catch up. Olivia has spent the night avoiding Rafael (who Carisi invited) and Elliot (who was invited by Fin). It had felt weird after the whole saga with Eli to be invited to the Stabler family Christmas. She hadn’t ended up going, her and Noah spending the morning to themselves and then having Amanda and the girls over in the afternoon for dinner. Then Christmas day itself had ended up being a giant shitshow and she had finally caved and talked to Lindstrom about everything, and she was still sorting through the revelations from that session.
Nick being around is fun because Elliot and Nick had hated each other at first sight and Nick had spent the whole night winding the other man up. Every time Nick touched her no matter how platonic Elliot glared. Nick had dragged her out to the dancefloor at one point and Elliot had looked like he was on the verge of storming onto the floor and tearing her away.
Olivia may be laughing at Nick, but Elliot’s reaction just made her angry, especially after the revelations from session with Lindstrom. She had had to a rather large amount of soul searching after that and she felt lighter than she had in ages.
“Right, I’m done,” Olivia hears Rafael mutter from somewhere close by. Olivia turns to face him and there is determination on his face as he stalks towards her. This time she doesn’t have anywhere to escape and he reaches down to grab her hand. “Dance with me?” Olivia is ready to say no, but he interrupts before she can. “Please?” She finds herself nodding and following him onto the dancefloor.
“Holy shit.” Nick mutters to Amanda who had just come back from the bathroom.
“What?” Amanda asks and Nick nods towards the dancefloor where Olivia and Rafael are dancing, if what they are doing could be called that.
“That is the angriest dance I have ever seen.” Nick says and Amanda can only nod. Barba and Liv look like they are both fighting for dominance, but it is surprisingly graceful the way they seem to switch off who is leading as they struggle. They also seem to be arguing.
“That’s really hot.” Amanda says and laughs at the looks Carisi and Nick give her, “Maybe they will finally sort their shit out.” She continues. Stabler is glaring at her, but she gives him a cold glare back. She doesn’t like the man and as soon as Olivia figures out what a dick he is and kicks him out of their lives the happier she will be.
“I don’t think they are speaking English.” Nick says squinting.
“Are they fighting in Spanish?” Carisi asks coming up on Amanda’s other side. By now the whole group had caught on to what is happening and Fin, Phoebe and Stabler are all staring at the pair on the dancefloor too.
“No, I don’t think so.” Nick says tilting his head slightly.
“Liv speaks Italian too.” Fin interjects.
“Barba doesn’t.” Carisi says in reply. “He speaks French though.”
“Yeah, so does Liv.” Nick says.
“Je t’aimais et tu m’as quitté!” Liv’s voice carries across the floor.
“Definitely French.” Carisi says. But the rest of them are staring in shock.
Barba looks gutted and Nick almost feels sorry for the man. Liv looks shocked at the words that popped out of her mouth, before she looks just as devastated as Rafael.
Whatever Barba says next is back to a normal volume because they can’t hear it. But he raises his hand to cup her cheek and the two of them stumble off the dancefloor and out the front doors.
“Holy shit.” Amanda gapes watching after them.
Stabler looks like he is ready to follow them, but Fin places a hand on the man’s arm which seems to stall him for a while.
Olivia bursts out of the club and there are already tears building in her eyes.
“Livia, querida, please look at me.” Rafael’s voice is gentle, and she can feel his hands on her cheeks as he gently guides her head so that their eyes can meet. She is startled to see there are tears in his eyes as well.
“I’m sorry I left like that; I never should have done that to you.”
“You were going through a lot.”
“I was, but I should have told you before I left. I should have had the courage to let you know that I loved you. Dios Livia if I had any idea that you had felt the same way.” They are both crying now.
“You said you had to move on.” Olivia feels like she is coming apart, like parts of her were flying away in the flurries of snow that were surrounding them. She can’t feel the cold.
“Not from you, never from you. You’re it for me Olivia.” Rafael says and Olivia breaks open.
“Me too. You’re it for me too.”
“Just so we are clear, I am in love with you Olivia. I have been for a long time. Longer than I should have.” The smile that spreads across Olivia’s face is incandescent.
“That really works out for me.” Olivia says. “Cause, I am in love with you too.”
Rafael spins her around delightedly as they both laugh. She grips onto him and reels him in using the collar of his shirt.
“I really would like to kiss you now Olivia.” Rafael says his hands settling on her waist his voice dropping into something deeper, smoother as he says her name and she feels her hair stand on end.
She doesn’t answer, she just leans forward to gently press her lips to his.
It feels like she is coming home and feels like she is flying all at the same time. When Rafael changes the angle and deepens the kiss and she gets her first taste of him, Olivia wonders why she never did this before. She never ever wants to stop kissing him.
Eventually they need to pull back, for air if not because they want to stop.
“How long is longer than you should have?” Olivia asks cheekily leaning down to press her lips to his again.
“I wanted you the day we met.” Rafael drawls, kissing her again. “All swagger and confidence. Your competence was very appealing. But then I got to know you and the want never went away, it just deepened into something else.”
“God that first trial. If you had asked, I would have taken you home and wrecked you. Captain Harris said you had a big brass… ego.” Olivia drawls smirking at him. “You definitely proved that and more.” Olivia says wickedly. “But yes, your competence was also very appealing. Then you became my best friend, and I got scared, I didn’t want to lose you.”
“We really made a mess of this.” Rafael says.
“We made it here now.”
“We did.”
Olivia leans forward sealing her mouth over his once more.
“We should go inside soon, but Noah is out tonight staying over at a friend’s, I do have a lot to catch you up on, so you can stay if you want?”
“If I have anything to say about it, you’ll never get rid of me.” Rafael grins kissing her again.
“Squabbling until we are 85?”
“And for however many years afterwards.” Rafael grins back at her, linking their hands and leading them back inside the bar.
They are so wrapped up in each other that neither of them notices Elliot ducking back into the bar ahead of them.
“Oh, thank god.” Carisi says enthusiastically when they reach the table.
“Were you worried Carisi?” Rafael asks smirking.
“Of course not.” The ADA says quickly taking a sip of his drink.
“You made up then?” Amanda asks.
“We did.” Olivia says smiling, she still hasn’t let go of Rafael’s hand.
“And you are holding hands because?” Nick asks smirking.
“Because that’s what you do with people you love.” Olivia says.
“Thank god.” Olivia’s head snaps around to stare at Amanda. “What? I have never seen anyone as obsessed with each other professionally like you too were. I swear sometimes it was like you were trying to prove which one of y’all’s competence kink was stronger. I wanted to lock you in a room.”
Both Rafael and Olivia stare at her.
“She’s not wrong.” Fin says into the ensuing silence.
“Professionally obsessed?” Olivia asks.
“So professionally obsessed. Every time one of you did something that proved you were good at your jobs the other one looked like they wanted to tear the others clothes off.”
“Seriously?” Rafael sputters. There is a blush painting both their cheeks.
“Seriously.” Amanda says. “You should have seen her after court. Or you after she interrogated someone.”
“Ohhh, and Liv’s command voice.” Carisi says.
“Everyone likes Liv’s command voice though.” Amanda says laughing at their faces.
“Why didn’t you ever say anything? To either of us?” Olivia questions.
“We really thought you would figure it out yourselves. I mean at this point we were beginning to lose hope.” Amanda trails off at the glare her boss sends her. “It worked out!”
“I’m happy for you Liv.” Nick says smiling warmly.
“Thanks Nick.”
“Shall we dance again?” Rafael asks leaning down.
“What now that we aren’t arguing?”
“Maybe I will let you lead this time.” Rafael smirks.
“Neither of us has given up the lead willingly once in our entire relationship, I don’t see why we should have to start now.” Olivia laughs as they move to the dance floor.
“I can see this becoming problematic at some point.” Rafael smirks.
“But it could be so much fun.” Olivia says voice husky and suddenly they are dancing a very different dance.
“Naw man I don’t need to see that, that’s worse than the angry dancing.” Fin says. “I may need to bleach my eyes.”
“Good for them.” Nick says smirking because he can see Stabler fuming out of the corner of his eye.
“How long do you think they will last before they get out of here.” Amanda drawls eyes on the pair on the dancefloor.
“I don’t think they are going to make it to the end of the song.” Carisi says.
Sure enough Carisi is right and it doesn’t take long before the pair are heading back to the table.
“It was nice seeing all of you—” Barba starts.
“But we really have to go—” Olivia continues as they pull on their coats and grab the rest of their things and then make a beeline for the door and no one they left behind is sure who is leading who.
“Want to bet they don’t make it to the bedroom before they are tearing each other’s clothes off?” Nick drawls watching the pair of them go.
“That’s a sucker bet Amaro.” Amanda says laughing and clinking her glass against his.
“I really need to come back more often. This is the most entertaining night out I have had in ages.” Nick grins at them.
“And you miss us.” Amanda says smiling.
“Yeah, that too.” Nick says grinning at them all.
“I’m gonna need more alcohol if you’re all going to get sappy on me.” Fin says heading to the bar, waving his hand at them when they all shout their orders after him. None of them notice Elliot has left, wrapped up in the feeling of family that they all have and the happiness of their friends.